Posted on 11/11/2004 8:04:52 AM PST by FairOpinion
Some safety and privacy experts are reacting with apprehension, others with all out condemnation over a recent ruling by the National Transportation Safety Board to require electronic data recorders or "black boxes" in all new cars manufactured in the United States.
"I take offense that this personal property of individuals is now being designed by the federal government," said Jim Harper, privacy attorney and editor of Privacilla.org.
EDRs are certainly not new. Information gathered on black boxes — typically everything from speed, brake pressure, seat belt use and air bag deployment — has already been used in determining guilt in criminal and civil cases across the country.
Privacy experts warn that once cars are outfitted for the most limited data recording, the government will find a way to argue it’s for drivers’ "own good" to collect more. They point to a push in recent years to install GPS in all cars so that emergency officials can easily find incapacitated accident victims.
"When you are telling someone it is for their own good, then it should be their own choice, they should be able to say ‘no,’" said professor Yale Kamisar of the University of Michigan Law School. "None of these things work out the way they are supposed to. Why should we believe all of these assurances when they haven’t been honored in the past?"
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Our forefathers were very specific in the powers they gave to the central government, for real reasons that many of us seemed to have forgotten.
Remember Benjamin Franklin's quote: Those who would sacrifice liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.
I don't know, not getting much input, but I have enjoyed it. Thanks.
Don't remember anyone even asking!
One Smart Man - UB
Those quotes were made a loooong time ago, when the world wasn't nearly so mean.
Do you know the story of Amber Hagerman? If that truck she was in had a tracking device, she might still be with us. I'd give anything to have that little girl back. I lived very near the area where she was abducted and could never drive by that parking lot again after she was found. Still can't.
But you'd better be sure you don't drive anywhere you didn't say you were going to - or go over the speed limit a second or so for when you turn the car in, you're going to be hit with BIG bill - well, they've probably already docked your credit card -
me too...and this will, I'll bet, result in a lot of folk buying NON-American cars, until the insurance companies figure out a way to make you have them installed on ANY car you have...
Ohh, I just scared myself...that's what they'll eventually do - whadda ya bet?
Time to get a donkey
There is NO excuse to infringe on EVERYONE'S freedoms to catch a few law-twisters.
Let's not swallow that pap
got a link?
problem tho - They'll know it's been deactivated and cancel your insurance or "visit" you or???
Holy Sheite!
Since 1994!
And people have not been made aware of it!
A little hard to believe it's "for our own good" when it's been done in such secrecy!
Ah well, I've still got it beat - my car's even older'n that - and now I think I'll just keep it running forever - or at least nothing over a 1993.
I remember hearing a few years ago that they are in TV's now too - for eavesdropping - triggers certain buzz words to 'wake up' the listening end. Any one know anything about this?
nada
This is the problem - they can track you - keep a mile by mile, block by block record of everywhere you go...
not for MY good, thank you,
as a little ole white haired granny of 15, I'm not likely to be doing anything or going anywhere that's of interest to anyone but me - and, BY DAMN, it's also no one's business but mine.
Oh - by the way - I see the first ones were being installed in the 1994 cars - and just whose administration was that?
Wife has a copy of a letter (her family) that brings bad news. A young girl and her brother were snatched by Comanches, nothing new, sad to say.
Yes I know about Amber, but that is not the purpose of this box and more than likely, it would be pure chance if it did lead to child recovery. Rarely is the perp's vehicle known to law enforcement in sufficient time to head off a car switch.
then how come the guy in a rental car came back and had a mega fine he had to pay because the box told the rental co. he had speeded? sped? went over the limit
15 is a bit young to be a granny isn't it?:)
That to me is not the point. The point is - How much is the Gov't going to able to intrude in our lives. It's not just a question of our breaking the speed limit - or such - it's that they are tracking our every move...they can keep a dossier - even fatter than they do now - on every trip you make, when , where, who you associate with, etc.
THAT is what is NOT right!
And the gov't reason for using them has far less to do with ANY of these things than to be able to keep track of your every move...Just think of Big Brother sitting in the back seat of your car everywhere you go...
but one baby step to insurance co. requiring they be installed on ANY car you buy
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