Autonomous Vehicle Privacy
As you may have heard, the autonomous vehicle is coming soon to a showroom near you. Ah, what a pleasure to have your vehicle drive you back and forth to work while you catch up on overdue paperwork, return phone calls, or just kick back and relax.
Your car will deal with the traffic, crazy drivers, tourists, (yikes!) and those who insist upon doing everything but watching the road while driving. What could be better?
The magic that makes this dream possible is connectivity.
More specifically the Event Data Recorder (EDR) on board your vehicle, more commonly known as the “Black Box” in the future your vehicle and it’s EDR will travel along “smart” highways with Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) computer programs, as well as Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) to allow your vehicle to not only drive itself, but to avoid other vehicles, remain in its lane, read and react to traffic signs, and diagnose the route with the least traffic delay.
Sounds great, right? Or is it?
Assuming for a moment that such an infrastructure is possible, and it seems a long way off, all of this data collected by EDR’s will be out there in the wild world of cyberspace. I’m sure we all trust the government, and the many businesses involved to be reliable stewards of this information, but seemingly a week doesn’t go by without another large company admitting their data has been hacked.
And we can certainly imagine many benevolent uses for this information in say, in law enforcement, accident reconstruction, etc. But can we not imagine less desirable consequences as well? Would you put it past a automobile manufacturer to use this data to invalidate a warranty claim? Finally, if this data can be collected and stored, can it not be altered?
Still not concerned?
There are companies such as On Star that provide communication service with representatives who monitor your vehicle 24 hours a day. While they claim they are simply collecting data for “your” benefit under the guise of safety, these technicians have the ability to listen in to your private in-car conversations.
In 2003, a case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco considered the FBI’s use of these systems to “eavesdrop” on the conversations of the occupants. The Court had no privacy concerns as to the occupants so long as the safety features of the system were not compromised.
In 2011 General Motors and On Star issued a statement confirming their right to sell their customers’ data. They also announced a change in their policy to continue maintaining a two-way connection with privately owned vehicles even after the On Star subscription expired.
The change you ask?
They will now continue monitoring vehicles post-subscription unless the customer says otherwise. In the past, they maintained their contact with the vehicle despite the owner’s intentions. Do you still want to have a private conversation in your GM car or truck?
On Star’s company policy on this system also places an affirmative duty on the vehicle owner to inform all occupants that their conversations may be collected, used or disclosed for research and analysis. On Star claims a property right to the information collected, preventing vehicle owners, or occupants from acquiring the data absent a subpoena or Court order.
Unbeknownst to you, On Star or another similar company may be turning your data over to the authorities at this very moment. Consider the array of data that’s being collected, and disseminated about you.
Your Privacy Rights
A December 2013 report issued by the U. S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, found that nine (9) of the ten (10) telematics companies examined provided reasons for collecting the data that were so broadly worded so as to allow for potentially unlimited data collection and use.
In other words, the GAO suggested that these voluminous end-user agreements we’re all compelled to sign are basically a surrender of our privacy rights. Do you ever really read those things, or just click the “agree” button? Even States who’ve passed legislation trying to protect the consumer allow exceptions for court orders, safety research, and vehicular service. Broad enough for you?
We do live in amazing times, and the things we are capable of doing from the palm of our hands are truly remarkable. Yes, data collection does have valid uses. On balance perhaps all this tracking is a good thing.
The point of this musing is not to scare you into fearing technology, but to remind you that this unfettered access does come with a cost. Remember, your not paranoid if everyone really is out to get you. Just kidding. Or is it lol?
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