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EU Secretly Plans To Put a Back Door In Every Car By 2020

Posted by timothy on from the don't-worry-we'll-only-track-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A secretive EU body has agreed to develop a device to be fitted to all cars allowing police to cut off any engine at will, it emerged today. The device, which could be imposed within a decade, would also allow police to track a vehicle's movements as well as immobilise it. According to The Daily Telegraph a group of senior EU officials, including several Home Office mandarins, have signed off the proposal at a secret meeting in Brussels."

8 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Secret meetings: by fredrated · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's what democracy is about!

    1. Re:Secret meetings: by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Far more likely is was released on purpose because it is an incredibly bad idea. Any system to shut every car by every police force across the globe will absolutely positively e hacked before it is even distributed, allowing criminals to shut down peoples cars across the globe. So driving on unlit back country roads would become incredibly dangerous. Driving in the wee hours of the morning with out much traffic about, would become incredibly dangerous. Peak hour mega traffic jams would become routine. Payments to have the system stripped from the cars of criminals would become some routine, that they would become very cheap. I bet those same idiots would considering adding it to aircraft.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    2. Re:Secret meetings: by MrNiCeGUi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What makes this an incredible bad idea is that it gives the government a very powerful method to thwart dissent.

      In view of the recent events in Ukraine, where protestors or suspected protestors have received a threatening text message from their phone company, saying "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance", one can easily imagine that this technology which is to be used purportedly to stop car chases can and most certainly will be used to stop private transport in cases of massive anti-government protests.

      The power that this will give the government over the population is extraordinary. This is therefore a very bad idea and a serious threat to democracy and needs to be stopped.

  2. Hacker Extortion Target by RichMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $10 million, (finger twist), or every other car on the autobahn comes to a halt at 1pm.

    1. Re:Hacker Extortion Target by robinsonne · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We can hope, because that's the only way that the general public will finally see how dangerous having this capability is.

  3. Re:Great idea by Tokolosh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, disabling it will make you a criminal. Cover a surveillance camera, you are a criminal.

    It will be fun when a mother and her children are crushed by a bus when a static discharge immobilises her car in an intersection.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  4. OnStar coming to EU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lots of the above posts go on and on about hackers, yet I don't hear about this happening to all those OnStar equiped vehicles that have the ability to remotely disable your engine.

  5. Re:What could possibly go wrong? by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course, some people will have their automobiles exempted because some people are more equal than others.