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Drivers protected from black boxes

By: Staff

Date: 2003-09-25

On September 22, California adopted the United States' first law intended to protect the privacy of drivers whose cars are equipped with "black boxes."

The black boxes are data recorders that can be used to gather vital information on how a vehicle is being driven in the last seconds before a crash. Governor Gray Davis signed the law, which takes effect next year, requiring carmakers to disclose the existence of such devices and forbidding access to the data without either a court order or the owner's permission. The law makes an exception for a safety study conducted under conditions in which the information cannot be traced back to the car.

More than 25 million cars and trucks have the boxes that measure speed, air-bag deployment and the use of brakes, steering, seat belts and turn signals. Vehicle manufacturers want data from the boxes to improve vehicle design. Insurers want it to settle claims faster, assess fault and help prevent fraud. Safety organizations want it to analyze crash causes.

However, privacy protection advocates fear that this is the thin edge of the wedge and that black box data gathering could be expanded without drivers knowledge and the information used for purposes other than the original intentions.

Sen. Tim Leslie, R-Sacramento, who introduced the California bill, argued that the devices were installed without the owner's knowledge or consent and that the information they gather should be subject to the same legal protections as provided by the Fourth Amendment for other kinds of private information.

Senator Leslie compared it to the process for getting permission to tap a telephone. "It should be protected by a process," he said. Leslie's legislative director, Kevin O'Neill, said that in case of a crash that resulted in civil litigation or criminal prosecution, the data would be obtainable by court order.

Use of the black boxes is becoming more widespread. Currently they are used mostly by General Motors, but Ford is increasingly using them and other manufacturers intent to do likewise.

The boxes were an issue in a recent case in South Dakota, where Bill Janklow, a member of the House of Representatives and a former governor of the state, ran a stop sign and killed a motorcyclist. Police wanted to get information from the black box in Janklow's car to determine his speed prior to the crash. However, the car was a 1995 Cadillac and only had limited information.

The original purpose of the devices, which have been around since the mid-1970s, was to provide information to make air bags safer and more efficient.

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