Is My Car Reporting Data

Hi all,

Thank you for positive comments.

I've been asked many questions, and I don't think this is the place to respond to some. But to swing by a few:

The airliner: That is NOT an issue of tracking an airliner, can they or do they, even over oceans... It is an issue of (1) can a calamity occur that could result in tracking systems failing, or (2) can a group of experts find a way to defeat tracking systems in order to (name nefarious act). It could be #1, but I suspect #2 may be more of a possibility. Even though systems are complex and sophisticated, measures and countermeasures are always an escalating issue.

Some are raising the issue of Does Tracking Really Occur: I don't know, but I do know it certainly could. In referencing the nice, little, cheap, battery-operated, satellite-based devices that easily transmit GPS coordinates from anywhere on the globe, that includes mountain ranges and deserts, as well as cities as well as the wide ocean blue. Same for some phones that have that ability. I was not including the particular commercial system used as involved in the concept, per se, but that circuitry that can do that already exists, is small, cheap, and if you remove commercial aspects of a GPS emitter, the chips required could be quite small, including its local antenna. It could be powered off the car and made part of other, existing electronics in the car, such that it would be nearly impossible to find. Such would be the desire if (post Patriot's Act) considering pursuing terrorism. From a national security perspective, it would help track those nefarious. There's that word again. It's cost would be NEGLIGIBLE, cheap, almost non-existent, considering the cost of even a radio in the car, and the cost is included in the car's price, balanced for profit, no doubt. We're taking, what: $10? $20? Because it's just the chip, antenna..., no commercial facets to make it attractive to customers.

Data collection/analysis? Easy, with modern supercomputers. And, computers are taking on the level of sophistication, these days---not of a data collection system monitored and run by humans, but of Artificial Intelligence: They're thinking for themselves more and more, able to handle larger bits, even those more vague.

Importance of data? Seemingly innocuous bits of data add up, pieces of a puzzle that seem like nothing, independently, can make a beautiful picture when put together.

Is it okay to be (whatever leading to a total loss of privacy) if we see no current ill effects? If we get a convenience for it? If some short-term benefit can be perceived? I hope so, because we're there. However, if the information is unidirectional (from people, up through various systems to the top), then the grace of that system would depend on the virtuosity of those in charge---not just now, but always, for ever more, as once the system is et up, the power imbalance would prevent a reversion, I'm guessing. I think, truly, that where those in charge need to be able to find criminals, where commerce or individual convenience may sometimes benefit from data-mining, it's also true that we would need just as much information on the leaders, so we know who we're putting in power. Leaders, through out human history, are not always---not even usually---as virtuous as many people would like to believe, and the consequences, made through current decisions, will last for a very, very long time.

Clearly, technological advances make intrusions commonplace.

I think society's awareness of consequences has not matured yet. A social awareness of issues involved will develop in time, hopefully before major problems result.

I have faith both in the good nature of most people, a desire to live a happy life, to care for others, to make this world a better place... But I also have a concern about the virtuosity of systems and sometimes people/leaders, who find themselves in the position of too-much power, as it corrupts per Lord Acton's axiom: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And information is power.

Blessings to you all. These threads should focus more on the cars, however, what my car does is part of that.