Black box recorders in cars: a good idea or invasion of privacy?

Most new cars these days come with data recorders that can store information about what you’re doing behind the wheel. Are you spooked by that?

Big Brother is coming to a car near you. Most people don’t know it, but their car is fitted with a “black box” data recorder that can collect sensitive information about how they are driving their car.

Motor vehicle event data recorders (MVEDRs) can log driver inputs, including braking, speed of the vehicle and steering inputs to point the finger of blame at the driver.

Some are on a continuous loop, recording data then erasing it every few seconds, while others are activated by events preceding a crash, such as a sudden change of speed or violent change in direction.

In the US, it is becoming quite common for police to use data from recorders as evidence in court cases involving serious traffic offences.

And before you say only in America, it’s already happened in Australia, where information downloaded by Peugeot technicians was used against a young girl involved in a fatal car crash.

The really scary thing is that providing testimony in a court case is just one of a myriad of possible uses for these devices.

The onboard computer on a Nissan GT-R, for example, can tell if the car has been thrashed, neglected or tampered with. The company can even use the sat-nav to tell whether you’ve taken the car to a racetrack. If you refuse to hand over the data recorder or tamper with it in any way, there goes your warranty.

Even the Holden Commodore can be fitted with a “Big Brother-style” driver monitoring system that can tell fleet operators whether their drivers have been speeding or using their company car on unauthorised trips.

Look on the internet and there are a host of devices that allow parents to spy on their kids when they are behind the wheel.

There are those who will argue that there’s nothing wrong with this technology – if you’re not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear – but some experts say the systems may not be as foolproof as manufacturers would have you believe.

A senior executive from a major car maker who declined to be named says his company would never agree to hand over data recorder information because it was not reliable enough to be used for a conviction.

He says that simple things like disconnecting the battery or turning the ignition on and off can corrupt the data.

There has been a push in the United States to force car makers to have black boxes installed on all their vehicles, but the move has met with opposition from privacy groups.

Safety advocates say the information can be used to make vehicles safer and already the units can be used to send information about the severity of a crash to emergency services, allowing them to prepare better for the type of injuries they may encounter.

What do you think? Are data recorders a good thing or an invasion of privacy? Should the information contained in a black box belong to the driver or manufacturer? What do you think of companies tracing their fleet drivers’ movements or parents tracking their kids?

Richard Blackburn