 |
 |
|
 |
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 The All-Seeing Car Update by Clayton |
I don't trust cars. But then again, I've never liked cars to begin with.
As a child, riding in the car was generally an opportunity for me to stop whatever I was doing and watch the world go rushing by, or to sit quietly and think about things. When I learned to drive, that freedom was replaced by a responsbility to avoid all the morons and psychopaths who try to run me off the road on a daily basis. And given that I lived most of my life outside of Winnipeg and the fact that Winnipeg's mass transit system is abysmally slow I've been forced to endure driving as a necessary evil.
But now it's even more evil than before!
 |
|
Behold my crappy graphic!
|
I've noticed some new OnStar™ commercials that show an OnStar employee stopping a stolen SUV while police surround it. The cheery OnStar™ employee now informs the owner that they've recovered his stolen SUV. Everyone is happy and feels just a little bit safer knowing that the watchful eye of OnStar™ is looking over us all.
Instead of feeling happy and safe though, my conspiratorial mind started whirring like a dying computer cooling fan; just how much power does OnStar™ have over one's car? Who does OnStar™ answer to?
Like every technology designed to make our lives better this too comes with a sinister dark side. In these days of the US PATRIOT act where the US government can order companies to disclose any information they see fit without requiring a warrant or disclosure such a technology makes me nervous. And the fact that I live in Canada doesn't matter; OnStar™ is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and I imagine that the bulk of their technology runs out of there. They can monitor and control all equipped Canadian cars without any of the privacy checks and balances that our government provides us.
Of course, I'm not the first person to recognize the risk. The Wikipedia entry for OnStar™ points out the fact that not only do they know where you went, how you got there, how fast you drove and if you had a passenger, they can also theoretically turn on their built-in microphone and listen to conversations. It's Big Brother sans the video screen.
There's a lot of conspiracy nuts out there worrying about the government implanting us with tracking chips but why would They bother? We all willingly buy cell phones with GPS locators and OnStar™-powered cars that know where we are at all times. We're letting 1984 happen with each must-have electronics purchase.
I suppose it goes without saying I don't like cell phones, either.
Or you.
| Read/Post Comments about this Article | This article has been viewed 2531 times. 0 comments have been posted |
Please use http://www.claytopia.net/article.php?articleid=116 to link to this article. |
|
| The right sidebar |
If you were actually a member you'd see a lot of cool stuff here. Join now. It's FREE! |
| Sign Up |
| Recent Site Activity | ||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
|
This page has been accessed 60070 times since 2005-06-25. The content of this website is copywritten by clayton at claytopia.net, ©2005, 2006 However, simply by visiting this page you have a copy of its content in your internet file cache, which leads us to two possible conclusions: 1. You're a terrible thief 2. Internet copyright is really, really stupid |
|