quote:
Originally posted by moribundman:
The argument "If you don't have anything to hide, you have no reason to object to data about you (and your vehicle, health, finances, food perferences, sleeping position etc) being gathered, analyzed and used to define you, is totally irresponsible and opens the door to commerical, criminal and legal misuse and abuse of your information by anyone who can access (as in buy or steal!) your data. We lose out freedom bit for bit -- until it's all gone.
I dont know. It depends on what happens to the ownership of the data.
If Saab wants to have some fancy electronics in my car, and uses it to figure out how the car protected me in an accident situation, then great. Im more than happy for them to collect the data, and Im more than happy for them to have it - I gladly give it to them, as it is engineering and product development at its best.
If its an accident situation, and I have full ownership of my data, which Im willing to give away, it is better for me. Case-in-point... when I was hit in my 83 MB 300D in July of 2004, and had to sue the undernsured driver in court, progressive insurance claimed that I (second car from the back) was at fault, and that even though my car had all damage to the rear, was pushed to the side, and had minimal damage on the front, that I was at fault for the damages to the cars in front (it wasa pileup). I knew I wasnt at fault, I knew that I was in control and what happened. It took me puttng together an entire physics/engineerng derivation (thanks again forthe help, Molakule) before they tucked their tails between their legs and claimed to be at fault. If I wa sin a car that had a recorder, I could have plopped down the chip and shown that my car had zero throttle, zero speed, and had been at rest for so many miliseconds bfore being hit and re-accelerated dure to the other driver's negligence. Instead I spent how many hours fighting over liability and creating derivations and calculations in mathcad...
I dont like car insurance companies, nor do I like rental car companies much better. However, I am a careful driver that generally stays within the laws of the road.. OK, I do 71 in a 65, but usually not more than that. If I coul dget better rates on either (a.k.a. reducing their profits) by being monitored and proving my skill, I think I would.
I still think that if youre allowed to own a radar detector to snoop out the cops and allow you to proceed with your illegal speeding activiy without as much risk of being caught, then law enforcement, insurance, etc. has the right to prevent you from evading their grasp by monitoring your driving practices.
But it all comes down to balance and ownership of data.
JMH