GM is Not Listening

Just in case you were concerned, General Motors reassures you that:

The OnStar system does not allow monitoring of vehicle occupant conversations without notice to the occupants. When OnStar establishes a voice connection, subscribers will see the green OnStar status light flash, their audio system will mute (if it’s on), and they will hear the phone ring as they are greeted by the OnStar advisor.

Comments

Marian's picture
Marian on February 18, 2009 - 21:09 Permalink

Eeek.

Andrew Chisholm's picture
Andrew Chisholm on February 19, 2009 - 05:46 Permalink

A little of topic here… I am not sure where the debate went but several years ago there was talk in Ottawa about regulating to have television sets equipped with a chip that allows a cable company to turn on a subscriber’s television and also control volume levels and lock the television’s functions. The requirement by Ottawa would have been used to display emergency warnings and amber alerts. I am not sure if switching off analog signals is a move toward having more boxes connected to the cable pipe but it surely creeps me out. I don’t want someone to be able to turn my television on to deliver me a message.

oliver's picture
oliver on February 19, 2009 - 16:00 Permalink

We’ll be hearing fine-grained ads in our cars next.