WTF? Austin BBC World Service 3/17 18:47
While listening to a recent BBC news podcast, I heard about a recent present that used car owners in Austin got; cars that would randomly start honking their horns or refuse to start entirely. It seems that this dealership put some kind of remote (probably via cell networks) device on all of the cars they sold and a disgruntled former employee, Omar Ramos-Lopez, decided to take revenge by logging into the dealership remotely and activating the system on over 100 cars.
WTF!? ARE YOU SERIOUS?
This is not a computer security story, or a "Admins gone bad" story, this is a privacy rights story, as in "My two-bit USED CAR dealer can stick a GPS Tracking/Data Transmission/horn honking/CAR DISABLING remote control device in MY freaking car!" (Granted, I don't know relevant case law about items you are paying off/leasing, but I doubt they magically disable such crap on the day of your last payment.)
Where is Congress! Where is the EFF! Did those poor people in Austin only buy a "license" (MPAA/RIAA) to drive their car, or is it their right as an American Citizen to not be spied on without a COURT ORDER!
I suppose people shouldn't be worried about being spied on or have their car DISABLED randomly if they have nothing to hide, right?
I guess I shouldn't be worried about this if I have nothing to hide, right?
This is ridiculous and frightening. Forget waiting for the spiffy touchscreens and magic hand-waving from Minority Report. People in Austin are driving their used cars today.
BTW, you guys are freaking awesome. Thanks for your rants against the RIAA/MPAA/DRM/ACTA Gestapo.
Who hot elves (anagram for Love the show).
Other links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10469224-71.html
http://www.itworld.com/tech-society/101670/honk-if-you-love-privacy-or-hate-having-your-location-tracked
http://news.google.com/news/more?q=omar+ramos+lopez+privacy&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&ncl=d5bJRGpGa1H7xTMOiJnVqX15SEdoM&ei=27arS4jCMYfIsAPljqWNDA&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&cd=1&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQqgIoADAA
