Take My Privacy...please!
Okay, I'll be the first to say it: I think the whole "privacy" thing is overblown.
Well, not the *whole* privacy thing, but much of it. I am *very* interested in protecting individual information, such as credit card numbers, health records, phone numbers and such. I am getting less and less concerned about other matters of privacy, and I believe that many of the pro-privacy advocacy groups are going to be blocking technologies that will make our lives better.
What good is an "anti-paranoid" security professional? I dunno.
What will transportation look like in the future? Probably automatically-controlled vehicles a-la half the sci-fi movies you watch nowadays. Many people don't give this a second thought, but let's think about a logical step towards that:
Black boxes.
Did you know that your recent-model automobile likely has one already? How do you feel knowing that, should you get in an accident, a law enforcement officer may collect this data as evidence for (or against) you?
Great, now how about on a routine traffic stop? "Officer, I was only going 55" (try 70). "Your speed radar must have been pointed at someone else."
Or, before a traffic stop. [Officer Dannon looks at his redout] "Hmm, that car ahead of me was racing along at 90 before I pulled behind him..."
The two last scenarios are not likely right now, as the process for utilizing these is deliberately not one that may be readily available to a traffic officer. This isn't likely to change in the near future, as there are serious legal implications to these items.
You can read these articles to see what's collected, but the data will only get more invasive. It's conceivable that black box data and cell phone data (GPS) could be correlated to reconstruct accidents better. Heck, it may be correlated with past driving habits independent of whether there was an incident to see the likelyhood of your taking certain actions.
Frankly, I'm all in favor of an accurate reconstruction of any accident I'm involved in. Then again, I'm an honest guy, and I'm not subject to road rage or other idiocies of the American road.
The privacy problem is, in my mind, a matter of knowing where to draw the line. I perceive that most educated people do not trust those in power (governmental or corporate) to draw that line for us. Similarly, I don't trust us to draw the line for us. (Okay, really I don't trust you to draw the line for me).
These very technologies will eventually form the foundation for some of the wonderful future we've seen in the movies. With fully-automated cars we will save fuel and time, for example.
It's just that the steps to get there are so unpalatable to us, that we will be digging in against these advances every step of the way.
So for now, put a black box in my car if you must. Record every action I take, from drinking coffe and eating my Big Mac to calling my mom on my cell.
Just make sure you don't:
Record video or audio of me
and make sure you DO:
Put one in everyone ELSE's car, as well. I'm not up for being a lone sacrifice.
This way, when there's an accident, it's not about who lies best, but the facts will determine who was in the right, and whose insurance goes way up.
Fine by me.
Well, not the *whole* privacy thing, but much of it. I am *very* interested in protecting individual information, such as credit card numbers, health records, phone numbers and such. I am getting less and less concerned about other matters of privacy, and I believe that many of the pro-privacy advocacy groups are going to be blocking technologies that will make our lives better.
What good is an "anti-paranoid" security professional? I dunno.
What will transportation look like in the future? Probably automatically-controlled vehicles a-la half the sci-fi movies you watch nowadays. Many people don't give this a second thought, but let's think about a logical step towards that:
Black boxes.
Did you know that your recent-model automobile likely has one already? How do you feel knowing that, should you get in an accident, a law enforcement officer may collect this data as evidence for (or against) you?
Great, now how about on a routine traffic stop? "Officer, I was only going 55" (try 70). "Your speed radar must have been pointed at someone else."
Or, before a traffic stop. [Officer Dannon looks at his redout] "Hmm, that car ahead of me was racing along at 90 before I pulled behind him..."
The two last scenarios are not likely right now, as the process for utilizing these is deliberately not one that may be readily available to a traffic officer. This isn't likely to change in the near future, as there are serious legal implications to these items.
You can read these articles to see what's collected, but the data will only get more invasive. It's conceivable that black box data and cell phone data (GPS) could be correlated to reconstruct accidents better. Heck, it may be correlated with past driving habits independent of whether there was an incident to see the likelyhood of your taking certain actions.
Frankly, I'm all in favor of an accurate reconstruction of any accident I'm involved in. Then again, I'm an honest guy, and I'm not subject to road rage or other idiocies of the American road.
The privacy problem is, in my mind, a matter of knowing where to draw the line. I perceive that most educated people do not trust those in power (governmental or corporate) to draw that line for us. Similarly, I don't trust us to draw the line for us. (Okay, really I don't trust you to draw the line for me).
These very technologies will eventually form the foundation for some of the wonderful future we've seen in the movies. With fully-automated cars we will save fuel and time, for example.
It's just that the steps to get there are so unpalatable to us, that we will be digging in against these advances every step of the way.
So for now, put a black box in my car if you must. Record every action I take, from drinking coffe and eating my Big Mac to calling my mom on my cell.
Just make sure you don't:
Record video or audio of me
and make sure you DO:
Put one in everyone ELSE's car, as well. I'm not up for being a lone sacrifice.
This way, when there's an accident, it's not about who lies best, but the facts will determine who was in the right, and whose insurance goes way up.
Fine by me.
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