Is Big Brother in your car?

[superconnected]

Source: Komotv.com

When you hear about "black boxes" you probably picture airplanes that have been in horrible accidents.

The black box is the first thing investigators look for. The boxes record cockpit communications and airplane information, and can often tell investigators what lead to the disaster.

But few people know that black boxes aren't just in airplanes. They're in cars too. And chances are good there's one in your car, but you can't lift the hood to see it.

But if you get in an accident the information could be used against you.


Read more: http://www.komotv.com/news/7299131.html

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. I think it's important to make a distinction here.

In the case of the devices mentioned in this segment, we're not talking about some GPS device that radios your position back to some sort of data aggregator. These devices are actually *very* useful when it comes to crash analysis, and a lot of the data gleaned from these devices is used to make cars safer.

[superconnected]

2. I am a server admin in IP TV. I can check a log and see every single

button pressed on the remote control(it's called avr logs) that tens of thousands of people hit from their home. I know what channels they ever went to, when, for how long.

Some people would call recording that info, as well as the black box in the car, an invasion of privacy. I suppect the black box does not only record crash data, it records milage, and every time you turn or excellerate/slow down. That means you can absolutely rebuild where someone went. If they turned left, then right, then excellerated to 55 for 2.4 miles, then slowed down and verrred left etc.

That's all fine, but you should have the option to turn the recording off.

Now, for internet usage and where you go. Remember every site you go to can tell the site you came from and the next site you go to. I used to check those logs when I was an IIS admin.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Jesus, what's your privacy policy?

When I was working at ReplayTV, TiVo got raked over the fucking coals just for aggregating that kind of data.

And no, these recorders do not store long-term data about where the car has been. They are solely intended to record the motions of the car as it relates to the airbag system, so that the airbag system can be evaluated using real-world data. There *are* devices that will happily record everywhere that you've been using GPS. Several nations have considered rather draconian legislation to mandate these devices for the purposes of catching speeders, terraists, etc. This is not one of those devices.

[superconnected]

4. That's good news about the car device.

Those logs are typical on ip tv servers as well as on iis servers. The admin just has to elect whether to turn them on or not.

[TexasProgresive]

5. And the feds can listen in on onstar.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. The feds can listen in on your mobile phone calls too.

Or your land line calls.

[TexasProgresive]

7. That's not what I meant-

They can activate the microphone in the car ad listen to your conversations in the car as well as phone converstations.