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A Black Box for Car Crashes
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: July 31st, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/black-boxes-in-ca...
[There is] a growing debate over a little-known but increasingly important piece of equipment buried deep inside a car: the event data recorder, more commonly known as the black box. About 96 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States have the boxes, and in September 2014, if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, all will have them. Data stored in the devices is increasingly being used to identify safety problems in cars and as evidence in traffic accidents and criminal cases. And the trove of data inside the boxes has raised privacy concerns, including questions about who owns the information, and what it can be used for, even as critics have raised questions about its reliability. To consumer advocates, the data is only the latest example of governments and companies having too much access to private information. Once gathered, they say, the data can be used against car owners, to find fault in accidents or in criminal investigations. These cars are equipped with computers that collect massive amounts of data, said Khaliah Barnes of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based consumer group. Without protections, it can lead to all kinds of abuse. In [14] states, lawyers may subpoena the data for criminal investigations and civil lawsuits, making the information accessible to third parties, including law enforcement or insurance companies that could cancel a drivers policy or raise a drivers premium based on the recorders data.
Note: For more on government and corporate privacy invasions, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
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