Big Brother Down Under - part II
My post the other day criticizing the Australian Government’s decision to filter all incoming internet content in an ‘opt out’ system seemed to get quite a lot of hits, around 500 odd actually. Normally my traffic is around the 200 - 250 mark but something about that post brought in quite a bit of extra traffic, probably because it’s just a bit of a restriction on our freedom of speech..who knows…hrmm
Anyway, it seems that the Australian Government is at it again with a trial of a satellite tracking speed restriction system fitted directly to your car.
The External Vehicle Speed Control, or EVSC, system is essentially a satellite tracking system that is fitted to your car and via a built in GPS it checks with a satellite as to what the speed limit of the road you’re driving on is and if you’re over the limit it will do one of 3 things;
1. a warning bell will sound letting you know that you’re over the limit2. the satellite will activate a device that will restrict the amount of fuel going to your engine, but you can override it however you will be asked to explain why you went over the limit3. the satellite will activate a device that will restrict the amount of fuel going to your engine, but you cannot override it
At this stage the Australian Government is considering putting one of these options in the vehicles of ’serial speeders’ however the inventors of the technology are suggesting that the only way society will see the real benefits of the system is if it is installed in all vehicles.. At a cost of between $700 and $2000, I wonder who is going to be paying the bill..
In a perfect world where governments can be completely trusted not to gather all sorts of personal data on people this system would probably be welcomed with open arms, however I cant think of any governments in the world where that is the case so colour me skeptical that the government wont abuse this system and collect this data on your driving habits..
And what if some commercial concern was to operate / manage this system, I wonder how safe our driving data would be then, I’m sure this data would be quite valuable to the right company with the right marketing team..
The trial is currently underway in Victoria, with all state governments waiting for the outcomes..
So what do you think, is this an invasion of our privacy, am I over-reacting? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers, Matt
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