Lawmakers Try To Block Black Box Technology In Cars, DVR Tracking 167
Lucas123 writes "Lawmakers this week filed bipartisan legislation that would give car owners control over data collected in black box-style recorders that may be required in all models as soon as next year. The move follows a separate proposal made earlier this month that would limit telecommunications companies in tracking viewer activity with new digital video recorders (DVR) technology. The 'Black Box Privacy Protection Act' would give vehicle owners more control over the information collected through a car or motorcycle event data recorders, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed be required in all new cars as of 2014. 'For me, this is a basic issue of privacy,' said Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA). 'Many consumers aren't even aware that this technology is already in most vehicles.' The second, more colorfully titled piece of legislation, is the 'We Are Watching You Act'. The bill was filed in response to reports that national telecommunications companies are exploring technology for DVRs that would record the personal activities of people as they watch television at home in order to target them for marketing and advertising. If implemented, among other things, when the recording device is in use, the words 'WE ARE WATCHING YOU' would appear on the television screen. 'This may sound preposterous, but it is neither a joke nor an exaggeration,' Capuano said. 'These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy.'"
I wouldn't mind it if... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually I wouldn't mind having a black box in the car recording everything... IF I have access to the data. I've contemplated wiring up cameras and building a small server to continuously record front and rear views, so if there's an accident or something and there's questions about what happened I can pull up the video and say "Here, watch what happened.". Having had friends who've been dinged for rear-ending someone because they got rear-ended and shoved forward, I think it'd be wonderful to be able to pull up the black box record and prove that I was stationary with the engine at idle and the brake fully applied when the collision occurred and could not have been the cause.
What I object to isn't the black box itself. It's having that black box there and not having any access to it or control over or even knowledge of who's pulling the data from it and when.
black boxes (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, I got a primitive one in my own car. I just opened it up and wired the nvram reset to the ignition. Whenever the car turns off, it fires the reset. It's an amnesiac vehicle now. Of course, not everyone knows how to do this, but hey.
Re:I wouldn't mind it if... (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually I wouldn't mind having a black box in the car recording everything... IF I have access to the data. I've contemplated wiring up cameras and building a small server to continuously record front and rear views, so if there's an accident or something and there's questions about what happened I can pull up the video and say "Here, watch what happened.". Having had friends who've been dinged for rear-ending someone because they got rear-ended and shoved forward, I think it'd be wonderful to be able to pull up the black box record and prove that I was stationary with the engine at idle and the brake fully applied when the collision occurred and could not have been the cause.
Exactly this. 3 years ago the wife was the middle car of 3 sitting stopped at a light. A 4th car rear-ended the car behind her hard enough to shove them all together and push the front car through the crosswalk. 3 years of constant pain, spinal surgery, physical therapy, countless outpatient procedures, cognitive therapy, and because the damages to the cars were not major, the at-fault driver's insurance company has maintained that she could not possibly have been injured in that accident. The latest is their bullshit engineering analysis, claiming that the at-fault driver was going 3-4 miles per hour--to me that is so obviously an impossible conclusion that I'm astounded that a licensed engineer would put his name to it--I just hope their lawyer is not able to baffle a jury into believing such a steaming pile. Responding police officer did not remotely do her job, and damn I wish the at-fault car would have had a black-box data recorder, and that the data from it would have been captured at that time.
Re:I wouldn't mind it if... (Score:5, Interesting)
With Event Data recorders, you don't have to prevent hacking, or erasure. You just have to be able to detect that it occurred.
There in lies the problem, it's entirely possible to prevent that from being logged.
Seeing as you have physical access to the hardware it would not be difficult at all. At worst it would be a wholesale replacement of the part with a pre-modified version. But it's far more likely that you'll just have to re-flash the firmware.
Not that I'd advocate this, but I have to face the reality it will happen.
The lawyers can data mine these incidents, 5mph over here, unsignaled lane change there, a lane drift on a totally empty road, and put you in the light of a careless driver, and claim that an attentive and defensive driver might have avoided the accident.
This is why the law is very specific about fault (at least in my country). The road code is a 400 page document, if you printed it out you could use it for self defence.
Even if you were in violation of one of the more minor road rules, you can still be ruled to be not at fault. I.E. if you were changing lanes at a traffic light (illegal where I live) and someone runs a red and T-Bones you, there was nothing you could do to avoid that accident. Also whilst the events leading up to an accident are taken into account there is a limit of what can be used (I.E. if someone overtakes you and immediately brakes, forcing you to rear-end him, you will be considered not at fault because the other driver acted in an unsafe manner to put you in that position. However an unsignaled lane change 2 minutes previous would not matter as it did not contribute to the event).
BTW, an unsignaled lane change is the sign of a careless driver, it really should be muscle memory and you shouldn't have to think about it. Failing to do so every now and then is forgivable, but consistently forgetting is the sign of a bad driver. Drifting out of your lane unforgivable, regardless of how full or empty the road is. Anyone who has a history of forgetting to indicate or have trouble staying in their lane is bad driver.