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California Protects Black-Box Data Privacy

Posted by timothy on from the lots-of-little-brothers dept.

Snowgen writes "According to a story at SFGate.com, California has recently passed a law regulating the little black boxes found in many modern automobiles. The new law requires that manufacturers disclose the existence of such boxes in the vehicle's operators' manual. The law also prohibits the use of data from such boxes without a court order or the permission of the vehicle's owner, unless the data is used in such a way that it can not be traced back to the owner."

4 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dang nammit! by FyreFiend · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Easy. Ask yourself, "Did I do that at thair age?" If the answer's yes, then odds are they're doing it

    --
    - Apple Computer......proudly going out of business for over twenty years.
  2. Re:Why the hoopla? by cgranade · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The collection of vehicle control evidence is a crucial step in the investigation of traffic accidents. Sheltering that information from the authorities has only one purpose, to shield delinquent drivers from retribution for their unlawful acts.
    I think we've already been through the loop about "If you aren't ${someevilthing}, then you have nothing to worry about." Well, haven't you ever been late to a critical meeting and gone 10mph above the limit? Haven't you ever forgotten to buckle your seatbelt? And don't even get me started on video/audio data collection... My conversations within a car are indeed private, and should not be accesible by the police, the SS or DHS, or what ever. Especially not at-a-distance-we-don't-have-to-tell-you-PATRIOT-AC T-style.

    Shall we also say again that driving a car is a mere PRIVILEGE and far from being a right????
    That very well may be, and probably is, but the possesion of that privilege does not nullify a more fundamental right to privacy.

    --

    #define DRM chmod 000

  3. Re:"Or without a court order"? by realdpk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, you're saying, you want to be able to lie to your insurance company, and then the court, about how fast you were going?

    Now, I'm not a fan of this black box thing, but I don't think you're going to win much sympathy here.

  4. Re:Why the hoopla? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Even moreso, vehicular event recorders should hold at least 30 minutes of data, including video data, and be downloadable at distance by law enforcement.

    That's fine by me, but only so long as I'm allowed to remotely download the black box of any police car whenever I choose.