http://jalopnik.com/5842450/onstar-will ... el-service

For those of you who've read Orwell, Huxley, and Solzhenitsyn, the implications of this usurpation of personal privacy is obvious. Frankly, it's terrifying to me. And on that note, here's an appropriate soundtrack to help put this into perspective for those unfamilar with these authors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKHSf1PDYfE

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Creepy, old Eric (Blair) would be truly proud

Only a matter of time before new borns comes "chipped"

Al

If it bothers you, dont buy a GM with Onstar. Problem solved. Aint capitalism grand?

What's really scary is when the goverment does this kind of thing, like the warrantless wiretapping and even monitoring the library books we take out that was part of the Patriot Act.

I understand your concerns and do not attempt to minimize them or make light of them in anyway. I would not do business with a certain auto insurance company because they want to put a tracker on your car to monitor your driving habits...

Do you remember the DC sniper? I was right up in that area. They arrested the pair one freeway exit from where I lived. The company I worked for had me contact a government agency and offer a certain kind of assistance related to this problem. Bottom line: The fear of Big Brother is over rated. Be more afraid that our government doesn't have the power to protect us. I don't mean this as a slam. They have to protect against EVERY eventuality, whereas a person or group that wishes to harm us has to only get one thing right.

Now a direct comment on OnStar: If you drive off the road in a snow blizzard and get injured, OnStar will bring medical help to your location, even if you are unconscious. That is a real life or death situation where OnStar can save a life.

I understand that we can be tracked with OnStar, but cell phones can track anybody. I am thinking that most people have a cell phone. It is more likely that a government tracking program would concentrate on something most everyone has, no?

And there's the rub. Technology like this is successfully being sold to the public as "life saving" or good for us in some way, lots of incentive to have this "convenience". Yeah, I'm sure people run off the road and are unconscious all the time, and the poor suckers that don't have OnStar will be left to die.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

We can´t escape this trend. I don´t like it. We cannot legislate fast enough to keep up with technology. From a sociological point of view, we are sort of drunk on information technology, driving at 120 mph. Hard to know what it is doing to us until it has already happened. I hate to think that corporate greed is using consumer information in this way. We´ve become the ends and the means.

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FIGHT!

Why should I worry about the government tracking my location?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Yes. You go off the road in a blizzard (like I said) and your tracks get covered up with snow along with your car. If you are seriously injured or unconscious, and have no system to contact EMS, you get found when the snow melts. (Next spring)

If I wanted anyone to track every move I made I would rent out billboards and keep them updated...but that's about the way things are now,you don't know how many people are watching you.
I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal in my private life,but it's just that,"private"....and I'd like to keep it that way,but in this world they just won't let you do that anymore.

I agree. (Though I do think some other things, such as tracking us via our phones, are more scary.)

I've had another manufacturer's car tracking system for 11 years, it was an optional extra which I chose for the sole purpose of finding the car if it was stolen. As far as that goes, I'm fine with it. Collecting and storing my data, let alone selling it? Not OK.

The issue with the OnStar system is relatively simple. They are proposing to analyse and then sell data gathered from our movements in a way that plainly nobody agreed to, regardless what a paragraph of small print somewhere obscure might happen to say. Manifestly, nobody purchases a car in order to be spied upon and it should be easy and reasonable to insist (via legislation) that information is not used in that way. That's what democracy is for.

Tracking us via our phones and CCTV and face recognition software and all the rest of that stuff: that's much harder to deal with and much more frightening, to my mind. Worrying times.

BTW: I'm not familiar enough with OnStar. How does it know you've driven off-road and are injured in the snow and in need of help? Rather than just stopped in the forest for a nice cuddle with your partner? There's times we want a medevac helicopter coming to our rescue - and there's times we don't.

Cheers - C

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If someone is watching me, they reeeeeeeeally need to get a life.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Ceri, when the airbags deploy, the OnStar center gets a message. One of the OnStar agents calls the subscriber and talks to them thru the stereo speakers. If nobody answers, the agent calls EMS and directs them to the crash location. I really do understand folks feeling their piracy is threatened, but google OnStar and "saved my life" and see what kind of hits you get. I think those people will find a way to overlook the privacy issue.

I see the story is changing, now the air-bag has to deploy before EMS are dispatched? I can see the images now of all of the poor bastards that froze to death simply because the air-bag didn't deploy. The commercials are so scary, I'm worried. Save me OnStar!

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

If the air bags didn't deply it probably means it wasn't a serious accident and can therefore activate the system themselves.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

No. That's just one way it can work in a particular situation.