In the 1980’s, if Britain or the United States governments had declared that every citizen must report their personal whereabouts and also to whom they spoke, there would have been an understandable mass revolt and rioting in the streets.
Instead, we citizens were sold the mobile or ‘cell’ phone.
Lured by the promise of entertainment, technology and kudos, we rushed out and bought phones for ourselves and our children.
We bought the phones willingly. The needs of government were met.
It was all about information – being connected and being in communication. Being the first to know, the first to hear.
Twenty years later, we now understand how our cellphones pinpoint our position and our conversations and texts are widely and routinely intercepted and analysed ‘in the interests of National Security’.
Our billing information has been sold and resold a hundred times. British Police forces have sold personal details of car crash victims to ambulance-chasing insurance firms. Apparently, that is okay by us. Absolutely fine.
Since we are anxious to be seen as law-abiding citizens, we trade in our privacy in a way that was utterly unthinkable, even as recently as 1990. We ignore the outrageous invasion of our privacy by Google, Microsoft and a million life insurance and healthcare agents who now own copies of all our private details.
Some of us actually help out by uploading our private life and photo album details to Facebook.
Next on the agenda of big business and world government: our car.
“…all citizens shall declare their car journeys, itineraries, speeds attained and addresses visited…”
We are sold ‘infotainment’ and connectivity packages for our new car. We buy them, using our own money.
Intel put it perfectly in their press release:
“…Cars are gradually transitioning from an information isolated island to a mobile information processing platform…”
The statement is almost benign in its apparent casualness.
However, be not fooled. The parking camera package that you bought because you are too stupid to park your own car can now record the license plate of the car behind and in front.
One click of a switch at “Headquarters” and every driving citizen becomes an unmarked Police cruiser, fitted with Automated Number Plate Recognition.
Your three year old car already tells tales on you to its manufacturer. When you send it in to the dealer to have it serviced, you naively believe that the big red box it gets plugged into tells the mechanic what is wrong.
It doesn’t. It uploads data to the manufacturer, who then tells the mechanic what is wrong. The manufacturer now knows if you hit the rev limiter…while in sixth gear. How often the ABS has been activated today.
You naughty thing, you! Let us hope that the manufacturer doesn’t tell the Police, or you’d be in deep trouble. Or your insurance company. Or your leasing company. Or your boss, who is considering you for promotion.
Perhaps, having read this far into my post, you are inclined to believe that I am being a little paranoid? Well, it only takes one click and your car uploads its data. The only question that remains is: to whom?
Your car is already programmed to transmit your speed. Your sat-nav already does so.
Governments around the world are waiting for your opinion. They like opinions. It saves them having to ask.
When will the switch be ‘clicked’?
Well, that really depends on how we citizens feel about it. This is the ‘Big One’. All our other information is already accessed by the State in most Western countries but our car is the last frontier. It has always given us the feeling of freedom.
If we citizens realise that our car is now no longer a source of freedom but instead just expensive transportation, we may decide to take a taxi instead. We may rebel and refuse to buy our next car.
So the trick is to make us want to buy our next car.
It won’t be hard. Governments have progressively increased taxation on older cars and manufacturers have raised the prices of key spares to the point where it becomes uneconomical to keep them working.
As consumers, we take the hint. We buy a new car. Besides, the new one comes with an ‘Infotainment Package’…
Slam dunk.
The bank robber of the future will strip you, tie you up in the trunk of your car, drive to the bank and rob it in your name.
They will walk back to the car and plug in a second-hand ECU under the hood. They will dial a police crime line with your phone, drop it in the gutter and then drive you out to the woods.
There, you will be reunited with your clothes and shoes and given your keys back and told to drive off. As you gratefully sit behind the wheel, the robber will shoot you in the head, put the gun in your hand, close the door and then walk away.
According to the medical records that your doctor sold to your insurance company without your knowledge, you were taking anti-depressants.
According to the Police, always anxious to solve crime, there is an awful lot of even stronger evidence.
CCTV footage shows a person of your height and wearing your clothes and shoes, with a mask. Your phone and your car were tracked across town to the bank. Your phone is found, soaking wet – so no fingerprints there – but its call records are examined. Later that day, you are found behind the wheel of your car by a kid walking his dog.
Why you did it and where you hid the money will remain a mystery. Your life insurance company refuses to pay out to your family.
Isn’t technology wonderful?
roadwax 