AUTHOR Robert Gillespie

Is the black box listening in on my conversations?

Is the black box listening in on my conversations? The black box is considering being made a mandatory requirement in cars for new drivers but people are worried that it will record everything and limit their privacy within the comfort of their car. The black box in an airplane records all the movements, conversations between pilots and anything else that happens. So is the black box in cars a similar mistress as its airplane brother?

According to a spokesperson the black box only records moments before a crash and the reason it is there is it can tell investigators whether the driver if the car was speeding, if they were wearing a seatbelt, which pedal the driver hit and other details that they may need to investigate in the event of a crash.

They also claimed if people are worried about being listened to whilst in the car they should be looking more closely at things like their GPS, infotainment systems and mostly for Americas Electric toll payment systems. Dorothy Glancy suggests that a lot of the time “People don’t know its happening” as people aren’t often told “Hey, your Toll payment system is tracking all your movements!” when they go to purchase one.

The worrying thing is that this is actually happening and has been used to prove some odd circumstances. The Electronic toll payment device records when you go through each toll booth and in some cases have been used in order to prove that spouses are cheating in divorce settlements due to their positions are certain times. So the question arises who knows what’s watching and listening to them whilst they are in the car? Is your best bet buying a really old car that doesn’t rely on the newest technology?

However the good news you can salvage out of this is the black boxes are the least of your worries if you are cautious about being tracked. Which I suppose is a good thing.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller