OnStar Changes its Mind About Tracking Vehicles

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eatmeimadanish

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Feb 20, 2004
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Thank the lorda for Bill O'Reilly. Its not a coincidence that after he reports on this, 24 hours later they change their stance. At least one media person is willing to take on the powerful.
 

kinggremlin

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[citation][nom]MDillenbeck[/nom]Personally I don't see the big deal. The data isn't tied to you, its anonymous, right? So they sell the data to retailers so they can buy locations that will be more convenient to you and reduce the amount you drive, or they sell it to the government so they can plan roadways that will benefit the community. Also, if they track your vehicle no matter what, wouldn't that be helpful if it is ever stolen?[/citation]

It's not a big deal and never was. It's the tinfoil hat nature of society today. To think that GM gives a crap how fast you are driving or where you are going is beyond ridiculous. The flow of traffic in general is useful data that the gov't can use to build a better road an highway system. When that data is sold they aren't including vin numbers or your name or anything else that can identify you. That information would be of zero use to engineers. Even if that somehow happened by accident, to think that someone would actually comb through that data looking for speeders or people who didn't stop at stop signs to report to the police doesn't even qualify for stupid.

And for the man never landed on the moon club that think the police would be interested in this information. You might be right. But the only thing they could use that data for is to look for areas where there is a consistent pattern of speeders to place an officer there. They could never use the data to actually go after someone. You cannot be retroactively ticketed from such data. GPS data like that would never stand up in a court of law.
 
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