Most people know about the "black boxes" that are installed on airplanes. They are designed to provide key information to safety investigators of what was happening on an airplane leading up to an accident. (They are called "black boxes", because of their color after they have survived a fire.)
What many people do not know is that many newer cars have something similar installed. There is nothing like the "cockpit voice recorder" that records what pilots are saying. Airplanes actually have two "black boxes" - a voice recorder and an instrumentation data recorder. It is the second one that is similar to the new devices in many cars.
These devices are defined, in legislation approved in the Judiciary Committee today as...
The legislation specifically allows law enforcement to have access to this information through the usually warrant process. The legislation does not prevent that. What it does do is to make it clear that the car owner owns the information in these data recorders, and other private individuals and companies have to ask permission to use it.
Given this, it made sense to me that I should vote in support of it in the Judiciary Committee today.
What many people do not know is that many newer cars have something similar installed. There is nothing like the "cockpit voice recorder" that records what pilots are saying. Airplanes actually have two "black boxes" - a voice recorder and an instrumentation data recorder. It is the second one that is similar to the new devices in many cars.
These devices are defined, in legislation approved in the Judiciary Committee today as...
"Event data recorder" means a device installed in a passenger motor vehicle, as defined in section 14-1 of the general statutes, that (A) records (i) the speed at which the motor vehicle is traveling, (ii) the direction in which the motor vehicle is traveling, (iii) steering performance data, (iv) brake performance data, including, but not limited to, whether the brakes were applied before an accident, (v) the usage of the operator's seat belt, (vi) engine speed, or (vii) throttle position, or (B) is capable of transmitting data concerning an accident in which the motor vehicle is involved to a central communications system; and (2) "lessee" means an individual who leases a passenger motor vehicle pursuant to a written lease for such individual's personal use for a period greater than three months.This legislation, Senate Bill 974, (click here for the text of the bill) is designed to address a concern many people have had that the information recorded by these devices might be retrieved by someone might access this data - like an insurance company after an accident - and that this would violate the privacy of the car owner.
The legislation specifically allows law enforcement to have access to this information through the usually warrant process. The legislation does not prevent that. What it does do is to make it clear that the car owner owns the information in these data recorders, and other private individuals and companies have to ask permission to use it.
Given this, it made sense to me that I should vote in support of it in the Judiciary Committee today.
