by Brian Knowles
Black boxes may soon become the icon of the Age of Big Brother. We’re all familiar with them because they are one of the most important targets of those who investigate airplane crashes. The black box functions as a recorder for flight data. The information it contains often provides investigators with data that helps them determine the cause of the crash. For several years now, unbeknownst to the car-buying public, General Motors is installing black boxes in its automobiles. A more limited version is also found on all of Ford’s 1999 models.
The introduction of these devices into domestic automobiles is being accompanied by the usual high-sounding rhetoric by the usual suspects. Government officials and "doctors" are claiming that these boxes will help them better understand "how the human body tolerates car crashes." This in turn, we are told, will help legislators create "better safety standards" that would help protect us in crashes. (Translation: more regulation and more bureaucracy to enforce it).
According to an Associated Press Report (6-1-99), this "sensing and diagnostic module" is already installed in hundreds of thousands of 1999 model cars. Buicks, Cadillacs, Pontiacs and Chevrolets are equipped with the device (select models). Within the next few years GM vehicles will all be equipped with black boxes. So what kind of information does the box now provide those who investigate auto crashes?
It tells them how fast you were driving, whether or not you were wearing your seat belt, and whether or not you hit the brakes before impact. It also lets them know whether a warning light was or was not illuminated on the dash board reminding an owner to service a air bag.
GM has been quietly installing earlier, somewhat less sophisticated, versions of the black box since throughout the 90s. It was only in May of this year that it became public knowledge.
Now, let’s see here… who is most likely to benefit from the presence of these electronic tattletales? Auto insurers head the list. After all, it will help them better determine who’s at fault in auto accidents. Of course there’s the question of how reliable is the data that will be collected from these devices. What if multiple eyewitnesses contradict the info supplied by the sensing module?
How can the information provided by these devices be kept private? Will it be distributed among auto insurers and to the DMV? Worse, will it become part of the government's now bulging files on every citizen? Will auto owners themselves have access to the information before anyone else does? (Not very cotton-pickin’ likely.)
Does the use of this technology have Fifth Amendment implications? Will information provided represent self-incrimination? Who owns the information in the box? Who controls access to it? Will in-car conversations be recorded? Will chemical detectors and cameras be added? How sophisticated will these devices become?
And think about this -- how many people drive at or below the speed limit most of the time? Almost no one – including the employees of auto insurance companies and governments. How then will the use of these black boxes affect claims, insurance rates, red lining and insurability? You can bet the insurance companies will turn it to their advantage.
Black boxes in airplanes are one thing – they are public transportation. Black boxes in personal automobiles is quite another. They are private property. Their installation represents a blatant invasion of privacy.
Now that the technology is being perfected, where will the black box mentality take us? How many creative applications will be justified in the name of safety or security? Will there be black boxes for personal computers, television sets, bicycles, hot air balloons, leaf blowers, lawnmowers, and, perish the thought, handguns? Perhaps black boxes will be installed in toilets and bidets? Undoubtedly corporate management will find uses for them in the cubicleized rabbit warrens commonly known as "the workplace." We can envision their use in time clocks, employee rest rooms, water coolers, copy machines, cafeterias, and in designated smoking areas. We can picture cameras being added to maintain a visual record of employee activities.
Surveillance of employees is already pervasive in some corporate cultures. The black box could simply exacerbate the relentless invasion of employee privacy.
Technology, like guns, is inanimate. It is the use to which it is put that determines whether its manifestation is benign or malevolent. It is people that determine usage, not the technology itself. Some years ago, privacy barriers began falling. In our time, they are almost non-existent. For those in whose interests it is to know all about you, including the details of your driving habits, there is no such thing as privacy.
General Motors, by adding black boxes to its automobiles, is advancing the cause of Big Brother and further eroding whatever ephemeral rights to privacy car owners may have had. It is only a matter of time before other automakers follow suit. First a trickle, then a flood.