When Paul McCartney sang “Baby, you can drive my car” for the Beatles, he wasn’t thinking about turning over control of his automobile to the government. But the government has been trying to get behind the wheel for years, and it’s now closer than ever.
According to Polish journalist Kamila Pajer, who should know a thing or two about oppressive government and state violations of privacy, fears of global warming has led to an urge across developed nations to control private transportation.
“Many countries are seriously considering introducing surveillance tools and road pricing systems based on Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology that will trace cars and tax their drivers.”
That’s not the worst of it, though.
“If the technology allows,” she wrote for techcentralstation.com, these governments might “even decide where and at what speed the vehicle goes if it allows it to move at all.”
Already the National Transportation Safety Board is requiring that electronic data recorders be included in all new cars made in the U.S. And the Department of Transportation is working on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
This is a wireless and wire-line communications technology that is being sold as a means to relieve congestion and improve safety, but it could turn out to be a tool that allows the state to invade privacy.
Washington had better travel this road carefully. The application of technology should increase privacy and freedom, not deprive us of it.
But technology improperly used – especially by the government – can turn the freedom-enhancing benefits of technology into shackles that limit and constrain so that, in this case, it isn’t clear whois really driving your car.