"Nineteen automakers accounting for most of the passenger cars and trucks sold in the U.S. have signed onto a set of principles they say will protect motorists' privacy in an era when computerized cars pass along more information about their drivers than many motorists realize. AP link: Carmakers unite around privacy protections Slashdot discussion of article: Carmakers Promise Not To Abuse Drivers' Privacy - Slashdot Slashdot is heavy on people in the computer and data industry. They know *exactly* what is in your telematics and how it works.
Slashdot is also full of folks with a anti-business and anti-government view of life and the way things should be only according to them. One reason why I stopped reading/contributing there years ago despite being in the business for years. Want to use an Ez-Pass to quickly pay a toll, your car is monitored and reported. Want to buy a used car and get a meaningful Carfax, that car was monitored and reported. Want to get your car serviced by a dealer, that car is monitored and reported. Want to get lower insurance rates, your car may well be monitored.
I refer to op out of all of these. One of the reasons that I bought a Prius v Two was that it had NO navigation or GPS system. Also I use a 10 year old cell phone with no GPS locator. It doesn't even have the Viking king Harald II namesake of Bluetooth.
Sounds good on paper. Doesn't it? ! The actuality of it might not be so benign. outsides - out of warranty - slash - dot - dot - dot - dash $
No.... No... Heck NO! OK....so we live in the year 2014. Actually? The tin-foil hat wearers are bigger blips on the NSA's radar screen than those of us who: ...Have a smart phone and use it sparingly. ...Have a FB account and use it VERY sparingly. ....Use credit cards (NOT bank cards) very sparingly and pay them off monthly. ....Drive modern cars. The idea is herd mentality. You don't want to be a statistical outlier, and you do expect that all of your activities can be monitored. So....this means that if you drive a 1973 F150 then yes....big brother can't tell whether or not or how many times you drive away without your seatbelt latched. However (comma!) that means that you have to drive an F150! My thing is to live in the 21st century, but I'm not so self-involved that I imagine that my life is worth monitoring. If the automakers start denying warranty work based on information that is already being data-logged by their cars, than I would expect that the government will reign them in. After all.....it's the government's job to snoop into every aspect of our daily lives, and they don't like upstart competitors!
Remember the now infamous quote from the upstart Google way back when... "Google: We will never be evil like Microsoft." Promises, promises...
