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Black Boxes In Cars Raise Privacy Concerns
hessian writes "In the next few days, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to propose long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders — better known as 'black boxes' — in all new cars and light trucks. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years. Data collected by the recorders is increasingly showing up in lawsuits, criminal cases and high-profile accidents. Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray initially said that he wasn't speeding and that he was wearing his seat belt when he crashed a government-owned car last year. But the Ford Crown Victoria's data recorder told a different story: It showed the car was traveling more than 100 mph and Murray wasn't belted in."
I was born and raised in Massachusetts and this is just the culture of the State Police. Anyone who regularly drives on the highways has been passed by a cruiser with it's lights off doing 90 in the passing lane. After his first lies didn't pan out he retcon'd a new story about being asleep that fit the black box data.
I live in the United States, where people enjoy the right to not testify against themselves. That means nothing if a person is forced to pay for and travel with a device that will record possibly incriminating testimony which must then be surrendered to the courts. Sorry, but the right to be free from self-incrimination is the historically progressive innovation here. What you're talking about belongs to the days of the Inquisition. From the way you tell it, it seems like it's the Old World that's a little behind on the times.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
Not all Americans are egotistical jerks. Just the lower...I'd say 7% or so? Pretty much anyone who shows up on Maury or Jerry Springer.
Paraphrased from a decade ago on Slashdot:
"That's the downside to driving around a 1500 lb chunk of steel and aluminum. You aren't allowed to hit anyone with it."
Simply put, the US won't put them in jail for exercising free speech.
Simply put, the US is in no position to lecture anyone about incarceration rates.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
When was the last time you checked? We've now got warrantless wiretaps, indefinite detainment, we have to submit to a rapiscan to travel long distances, and the provisions of the TSA are coming soon to a highway near you.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!