Vehicle spy boxes
p2pnet.net News View:- Many comparisons have been made over the years between Information Technology and Transportation technology. In the 1990’s there was all the talk about the “Information Superhighway”, and the FLOSS movement often asked “would you buy a car with the hood welded shut, and it was illegal for anyone other than an authorized dealer to repair anything”?
We now see some of the privacy-invading aspects of DRM being introduced in “private” auto mobiles. A Reuters article discusses how the US government is not yet mandating black-boxes in cars, and stating that manufacturers need to inform their customers if they are present. The article claims that the black boxes and their recordings are the private property of the auto mobile owner, but as we have seen with so-called “trusted computing” it is all too easy for special interests to turn these tools around and rather than protect the owners the technology is used against the owners.
Most people think of their cars as property they, and not the manufacturer, should be in control of. The addition of “Black Boxes” to all third parties to monitor drivers is the beginning of a dangerous slippery slope.
The proponents of DRM, a technology which treats the owners of devices as the attackers of that which in fact they own, are falsely claimed to be capable of deterring copyright infringement.
Black boxes in cars, most likely to be used by third parties to monitor the driving habits of their owners, are similarly falsely being claimed to increase safety and other interests of their owners.
Russell McOrmond – p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons). He's also the CLUE policy coordinator.]
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August 24th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
These are not new. They’ve been in certain cars since the mid 90s. As usual a technology is already in place and being used before the mainstream public is informed about it.
These ‘black boxes’ started out being used by the trucking industry and then made it into cars. Now they are simply evolving to further destroy our privacy.
August 24th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Black boxes were designed to protect the manufacturers of cars when the air bags go off. They typically only record the last 15-30 seconds of the drive and cease recording when the airbag goes off. They do record things like the car speed, wheather the brakes are being applied, and if the seatbelts are being worn.
This information is subpoenable in an accident situation and are downloadable if you know what to do.
I have not seen any black box erasers yet but give it time.
August 25th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I removed the one in my car. It was right under the driver side seat.