Good onboard surveillance

New American, The, Feb 18, 2008 by Richard Geisel

Your surveillance issue of THE NEW AMERICAN of Oct. 29, 2007, lists the "OnStar" option on General Motors vehicles as a U.S. government invasion of personal privacy. I'm divided 50/50 on this issue after listening to an OnStar representative explain the system to a Society of Automotive Engineers' dinner meeting.

The company representative said that "they allow county, city, and state personnel to use the system for finding stolen vehicles, missing children, and dangerous escaped prisoners." The representative said that he was told that the "federal government was not allowed to use the system." He never specified what would happen if a U.S. government court or bureau--such as the FBI--demanded use of the system for their purposes. OnStar is a U.S. company selling its product to the General Motors Corporation. Use of it is free to purchasers of General Motors' cars for one year. Use of it for succeeding years is paid for by the car purchaser. The second-year renewal rate is in the 90 range.

The best example stated of the system in use was of an elderly couple who broke through a railing, rolled down an embankment, and landed on a railroad track. The OnStar system alerted by the airbag deployment stopped the train that would have crashed into them in less than 10 minutes. The couple was unconscious and could not exit the car on their own. They would have been killed by the train, but only had minor bruises from the accident.

There are several similar aftermarket systems in production also. No mention was made of the FBI being able to listen to in-car conversations through the system.

RICHARD GEISEL

Minneapolis, Minnesota