By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index
Long ago and far away, devices and tools were very simple; they were extensions of human strength and reach and allowed us to do things mere arms and legs could not do.
A few year ago, a variety of tools, devices and appliances began to be described as smart. The word smart has a very different meaning when applied to a machine rather than a human.
Unlike a human who is “smart”, a machine meets that definition when it absorbs and passes along information with no filter, in most cases without the knowledge or consent of the user. Or anyone else.
Besides our phones and a variety of appliances, from refrigerators to various devices and monitors scattered around our homes and offices, most modern cars, according to a recent study, are a Stephen King level privacy nightmare.
Hey Alexa, stop listening to me
Some of us have been raising the alarm about the “smart” doorbells and watches that connect to the internet that might be (or certainly are) spying on us in our own homes and neighborhoods. And beyond.
Cruise control was just the beginning
While some of us were thinking about home-based security and/or privacy, car manufacturers have quietly entered the data business by turning their/our vehicles into non-stop, often intrusive, data-absorbing mechanisms.
The latest generation of vehicles are machines that, because of all those near-miraculous bells and whistles, have an unmatched (and unmonitored) power to watch, listen, and collect information about what you do and where you go in your car.
From hands-free driving to the option of powering your home in case of a power outage, these vehicles can do what many of us could never have imagined just a year or two ago.
Several cars of this type have been recalled because of software issues. Could you imagine explaining this to a previous generation?
Connected – but to whom? And why?
According to one reviewer, “All 25 car brands we researched earned our *Privacy Not Included warning label — making cars the official worst category of products for privacy that we have ever reviewed.”
How many cameras does a vehicle need?
Back-up cameras are great, if not indispensable. But who of us could have thought how useful (or lie-saving) a front wide-angle, or overhead view would be?
Some trucks even have a bed cam, keeping an eye on what’s going on in the bed of a truck and making sure that what’s back there isn’t flying away or being disturbed.
Most Tesla’s have about eight cameras.
Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your car to know about
I’ve been in several of these cars – and driven a few. Some of these are vehicles few of us would have believed possible just a few years ago.
One truck I drove recently had a self-driving feature that could read the painted lane lines and “read” the traffic alongside, in front and behind, and, for added “assurance”, a camera was attached to the rear view mirror that monitored eye movements – and if the driver looked away too long, or closed their eyes, a warning would sound.
By almost any measure, current vehicles are much safer, more reliable, more efficient and comfortable than previous versions. But is your car capturing every word and movement of everyone in and around the vehicle? In a word, yes.
As one reviewer put it, most modern cars are “wiretaps on wheels”.
Editor’s note: For the record, on a near daily basis, I drive a 2009 Toyota Yaris with manual locks, no cameras or sensors, and hand-operated crank windows. By the current definition, it is not “smart” – just reliable. And I like the idea that it doesn’t “remember” everywhere it’s been.
