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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."

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  1. Re:So wait now by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    That's because we spend billions on the "war against drugs" and incarcerate anyone that walked by a pot plant.

    We should be doing the opposite - the government should be selling drugs, the only legal seller, and put all the pushers, dealers, and cartels out of business. It'd make money, and save lots of lives in the process, with the added bonus of removing the pushers from the scene so there would hopefully be fewer kids on drugs (selling drugs would still get you landed in jail) At least in theory that would work. Certainly better to try than the current wasted effort.

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    The cesspool just got a check and balance.