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The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

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The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Monday, August 16, 2004

NTSB responds to comments about auto black boxes

An OP/Ed piece in today's USA Today is written by Ellen Engleman Connors, the chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board. She writes that the NTSB is not interested in privacy invasive "black boxes" that record conversations or video. Instead, they want to mandate devices that record ten second loops of "objective data" from vehicle systems. See the comment via Yahoo:

Devices can improve safety
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sensitive to the privacy concerns drivers may have about event data recorders (EDRs), but such concerns need not apply to the types of recorders we recommended this month. Our focus is solely on safety investigative purposes - data that is an objective, non-human witness to accidents. EDRs have the potential to improve the accuracy of crash reconstructions and design better occupant-protection systems.

Our recommendation concerns EDRs that continuously record such data as vehicle and engine speed, brake status, throttle position, seat-belt status and air-bag deployment for about 10 seconds, constantly erasing the older data. We do not need 24-hour monitoring EDRs. The devices do not record such "privacy" items as passenger conversations, nor do they record video images.

Labels: information breaches