Corporate/Gummint Snoops

September 25, 2008
11:45 AM CST

You know, I’ve always had a slightly laissez-faire attitude when it comes to companies collecting data about their customers, simply because it’s always been a voluntary exchange—eg. supermarket cards, where chains collect customer product preferences in exchange for lowered prices, but where shoppers can always choose not to participate, by not using the cards. This, however, sucks great big huge green donkey dicks:

A Florida man named Scott Weires has canceled the order for his long-awaited Nissan GT-R. Why? It’s not that he was disappointed in the car’s performance credentials, far from it. The problem is that the GT-R is equipped with a ‘black box’, similar in theory to the kind found on airplanes to help determine what went wrong in case of an accident or breakdown. By the end of 2012, car buyers won’t have a choice as to whether their new car is equipped with a ‘black box,’ or Electronic Data Recorder—they will be federally mandated to carry one. These devices track information that could be useful to the manufacturer in determining exactly what is, or has been, going on with a car.

You know what? If any car I buy in future has one of these doodads installed in it, I’ll wait twelve months (anything that’s going to break in a new car will be in the first year, usually), and then I’ll rip the fucker out by the roots, and the car company can take its warranty and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

It’s bad enough that a corporation would install these things—but it’s far worse that said poxy device should be mandated by the Gummint.

Where I go, and how I get there, is my business, not the business of Global Auto Megacorp—and it’s definitely none of the fucking government’s business, either.

I don’t care how much it helps solve crime, or terrorism, or whatever bloody pathetic reason they give for this little intrusive Big Brother device. And I don’t care if it becomes illegal to rip the little bastard out, either. I’ll gladly pay the fine, and refuse to have it reinstalled as well. After that… they’ll just have to do what they have to do.

Fuck them all, and the horsepower they rode in on.