Big Brother hiding inside cars’ airbags (black boxes Goverment is Watching you)

Dayton Daily News ^ | 08.22.2002 | Cathy Mong

[MJY1288]

Can you provide a link to that story, I heard that that story was "Urban Legend"

[RikaStrom]

Uhmm... Let me do some research, I think I read it hear first, so let me see if I can find it for you.

I hope it's not an Urban Legend... dagnabit. :-)

[LurkerNoMore!]

Hopefully something will be invented by an aspiring entrepreneur to screw up the calibration of those things. Of course, it won't be cheap, and will be useless within 2 years as technology changes.

[Syncro]

LOL...You can stalk me anytime...Hay if I push the white button it says "ready" and then I can say "call" and it says "nametag" and then if I say "muze" it automatacally dials a *number*...haven't used that one yet..

[LurkerNoMore!]

Hold on a sec....... my phone's ringing

[MJY1288]

I do a lot of business with Enterprise Rental and I will ask the manager in the AM and see if they do such things, I recently took them up on a free offer to use on of their luxury cars, It had On-Star and I broke every speed limit from Maryland to Tennessee and no fines to me, I did have to give Enterprize my credit card number as a deposit for using the "On Star" phone. But no extra costs for doing 90 mph most the way down Rt.66, Rt.85 and Rt.40 :-)

[FReepaholic]

>>...what's to stop them from seeing how fast you're going at any time they'd like to check?..<<

Seems like I read of a car rental agency that had installed a similar device.

They'd read it after the car was turned in and charge extra if it had recorded what they considered excessive speed.

[Syncro]

Well why didn't you answer kiddo...went to voice mail...heheh

[RikaStrom]

Ok, I think I found at least one! :-)

Rental Cars equipped with GPS = tickets

And Two,

Rental company tracks drivers using satellites

and Three,

Car rental GPS speeding fines ruled illegal

I love FR archives.... If you can just remember enough exact words in the title, you can find anything. :-)

[dalereed]

"Go "On Star""

I'd rip it out before I ever moved the car one inch!

No one has a right to know how or where I go or how fast I get there.

Somne day that system will be used to totally monitor you and you can be sure they won't tell you when they are going to do it. The capacity is already built in!

[soundbits]

Is there a replaceable fuse?

[Richard Kimball]

Friend of mine used to run a trucking company that delivered for WalMart. They had GPS and cell phones installed. There were pre-designated routes to every store and warehouse, and they knew if you got over 5 or so miles off route and you were reprimanded. They also had "delivery windows", and you got in as much trouble for delivering early as you did late. He finally quit them and went independent.

Back in '92, I stopped late one night to help a guy broken down in a pickup. He told me he was a member of the Nebraska militia. We talked while I helped him get his truck started, and he told me he'd never own a vehicle made after '85, because that year the government had started secretly putting a chip in the cars that would allow them to shut any or all cars in the country off whenever they wished. I thought he was a nut, but the OnStar thing scares me. My truck's financed through GMAC, and I could just see getting in it one day and hearing this voice, "Uh, sir. We notice you're a little late with your payment this month, so we're going to keep the engine locked down and lock your windows and doors for a half hour. You just sit there and think about the error of your ways. You won't be late with that payment next month will you?"

[RikaStrom]

From 1999 and GMAC.

GM installs black boxes in cars

[Syncro]

dale you are correct 100%.

I don't like it either for what it stands for and how invasive it is.

But on the other hand I have an older vehicle which I could drive anywhere I need to go if I don't want to be tracked.

I will take advantage of onstar and use it for my benifit but will not let it dictate to me what I do
I already made use of it once when one of my sons locked his keys in his pickup with the motor running in the snow one nite last winter when were leaving the skiing area...LOL took an hour or so for someone to get there to unlock the car but it was nice sitting in my nice warm SUV playing games with the grandkids and talking to onstar and letting them make phone calls for me.

PS Hay it was GRATE to see you again last weekend or so in Vegas...:>)

[MJY1288]

Thanks for the links, I'm glad that the courts ruled in the favor of privacy

[MJY1288]

I will continue to use the system and I can appreciate the advantages of using it, But if I plan to carry out any serious criminal activity I will be sure to cut the antenna wire as would anyone with a lick of sense. After seeing the responses and links to previous court cases that challenged and won against the invasion of our privacy. I won't get my shorts all up ina bunch over "On Star", To me... It's just another communication tool until I decide to become a fugitive from the law, When that day comes I will cut the antenna :-)

[Richard Kimball]

Thanks for the read. I probably wasn't clear in my first post, but when I started reading about OnStar and the ability to lock or unlock the car, shut the engine down, etc, I realized that he was right. It was a real shock to me, and caused a general realignment of a lot of my thinking. That's why I sometimes get irritated when posts around here get inundated with pictures of tin-foil hats. I thought that guy was a nut, and it's now obvious the technology was there. I don't immediately rule out the possibility of anything anymore.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Stories from the OnCall call center. I used to work for EDS, and they ran the OnCall call center - we used to get stories from their call center about the adventures of the OnCall users.

User calls in and tells the rep, "I can't find my car, can you please honk the horn?" So the rep does so.

An hour or so later, the user calls in and says "I can't find my car, can you please honk the horn?" Once again, the rep honks the horn. There were two or three more calls from the user in the next two hours so he could "find his car." The rep finally asked the man "Sir, are you at a party?" The customer admitted he was, and asked the rep how he knew. The rep told him "because you've been parked in the same place for the last five hours."

[RikaStrom]

Whooops, sorry, I was getting search happy. :-)

The technology is out there, and I am not a tin-foil hat kinda person, but I trust the government less and less, especially when they tell me that they are doing anything for my own good, including spying on me.