Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/20286045/black-boxes-in-cars-raise-privacy-concerns

Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns

WASHINGTON -
Many motorists don't know it, but it's likely that every time they get
behind the wheel, there's a snitch along for the ride.

In the next few days, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
is expected to propose long-delayed regulations requiring auto
manufacturers to include event data recorders - better known as "black
boxes" - in all new cars and light trucks. But the agency is behind the
curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which
automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their
vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years.

When a car is involved in a crash or when its airbags deploy, inputs from
the vehicle's sensors during the 5 to 10 seconds before impact are
automatically preserved. That's usually enough to record things like how
fast the car was traveling and whether the driver applied the brake, was
steering erratically or had a seat belt on.

The idea is to gather information that can help investigators determine
the cause of accidents and lead to safer vehicles. But privacy advocates
say government regulators and automakers are spreading an intrusive
technology without first putting in place policies to prevent misuse of
the information collected.

Data collected by the recorders is increasingly showing up in lawsuits,
criminal cases and high-profile accidents. Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Timothy
Murray initially said that he wasn't speeding and that he was wearing his
seat belt when he crashed a government-owned car last year. But the Ford
Crown Victoria's data recorder told a different story: It showed the car
was traveling more than 100 mph and Murray wasn't belted in.

In 2007, then-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was seriously injured in the
crash of an SUV driven by a state trooper. Corzine was a passenger. The
SUV's recorder showed the vehicle was traveling 91 mph on a parkway where
the speed limit was 65 mph, and Corzine didn't have his seat belt on.

There's no opt-out. It's extremely difficult for car owners to disable the
recorders. Although some vehicle models have had recorders since the early
1990s, a federal requirement that automakers disclose their existence in
owner's manuals didn't go into effect until three months ago. Automakers
who voluntarily put recorders in vehicles are also now required to gather
a minimum of 15 types of data.

Besides the upcoming proposal to put recorders in all new vehicles, the
traffic safety administration is also considering expanding the data
requirement to include as many as 30 additional types of data such as
whether the vehicle's electronic stability control was engaged, the
driver's seat position or whether the front-seat passenger was belted in.
Some manufacturers already are collecting the information. Engineers have
identified more than 80 data points that might be useful.

Despite privacy complaints, the traffic safety administration so far
hasn't put any limits on how the information can be used. About a dozen
states have some law regarding data recorders, but the rest do not.

"Right now we're in an environment where there are no rules, there are no
limits, there are no consequences and there is no transparency," said
Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, a privacy advocacy group. "Most people who are operating a motor
vehicle have no idea this technology is integrated into their vehicle."

Part of the concern is that the increasing computerization of cars and the
growing transmission of data to and from vehicles could lead to unintended
uses of recorder data.

"Basically your car is a computer now, so it can record all kinds of
information," said Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of
Automotive Manufacturers. "It's a lot of the same issues you have about
your computer or your smartphone and whether Google or someone else has
access to the data."

The alliance opposes the government requiring recorders in all vehicles.

Data recorders "help our engineers understand how cars perform in the real
world, and we already have put them on over 90 percent of (new) vehicles
without any mandate being necessary," Bergquist said.

Safety advocates, however, say requiring data recorders in all cars is the
best way to gather a large enough body of reliable information to enable
vehicle designers to make safer automobiles.

"The barn door is already open. It's a question of whether we use the
information that's already out there," said Henry Jasny, vice president of
Advocates for Highway and Automotive Safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been pushing for recorders in
all passenger vehicles since the board's investigation of a 2003 accident
in which an elderly driver plowed through an open-air market in Santa
Monica, Calif. Ten people were killed and 63 were injured. The driver
refused to be interviewed and his 1992 Buick LeSabre didn't have a
recorder. After ruling out other possibilities, investigators ultimately
guessed that he had either mistakenly stepped on the gas pedal or had
stepped on the gas and the brake pedals at the same time.

When reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles cascaded
in 2009 and 2010, recorder data from some of the vehicles contributed to
the traffic safety administration's conclusion that the problem was
probably sticky gas pedals and floor mats that could jam them, not defects
in electronic throttle control systems.

"Black box" is a mechanic's term for a part that should only be opened by
someone with authority to do so. The term is most widely used to refer to
flight data recorders, which continually gather hundreds of data points
about an aircraft's operation during flight. Aircraft recorders, by law,
are actually bright orange.

Some automakers began installing the recorders at a time when there were
complaints that air bags might be causing deaths and injuries, partly to
protect themselves against liability and partly to improve air bag
technology. Most recorders are black boxes about the size of a deck of
card with circuit boards inside. After an accident, information is
downloaded to a laptop computer using a tool unique to the vehicle's
manufacturer. As electronics in cars have increased, the kinds of data
that can be recorded have grown as well. Some more recent recorders are
part of the vehicle's computers rather than a separate device.

Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., has repeatedly, and unsuccessfully,
introduced legislation to require that automakers design recorders so that
they can be disabled by motorists

A transportation bill passed by the Senate earlier this year would have
required that all new cars and light trucks have recorders and designated
a vehicle's owner as the owner of the data. The provision was removed
during House-Senate negotiations on the measure at the behest of House
Republican lawmakers who said they were concerned about privacy.

"Many of us would see it as a slippery slope toward big government and Big
Brother knowing what we're doing and where we are," Rep. Bill Shuster,
R-Pa., who is slated to take over the chairmanship of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in January, said at the time.
"Privacy is a big concern for many across America."