A Peculiar Blog

I’ve always thought that GPS systems in vehicles was a very two sided thing.  On the one hand you have the convenience of having reliable navigational aids available on demand.  There’s no need for futzing around with often difficult to manage paper maps, they can locate your position to within a very close margin of error and most units these days can also provide some very sophisticated route planning along with step by step directions to make finding an unfamiliar location almost painless.

On the other hand the obvious downside is that they can also easily be made to keep records of your travels, routes, destinations, stops along with date and time stamps for everything.  All it takes is a system such as OnStar to either misuse or allow that data to leak and you lose any hope of privacy concerning when and where you travel. In fact, OnStar type systems also have the ability to remotely monitor audio from withing your car and even disable the vehicle so that it won’t start.

Now enter the government.  It seems that federal fuel taxes are expected to be phased out by 2020, leaving an obvious gap in revenue.  According to one article that I read, one option that is now under consideration is the idea of using a “by the mile” road tax to replace the current fuel tax system.

I can’t help thinking that the government, who can’t even seem to dredge up the sensibility to use discount faucets or cheap coffeepots and bathroom fixtures instead of spending two and three times (or LOTS more!) as retail value (can you say $14,000 toilet seat?) and has shown a growing tendency to track and monitor citizens (remember warrantless wiretaps and NSA email snooping?) will almost certainly use the GPS records that it ostensibly will use for calculating road tax bills and add it to it’s growing thirst for “Total Information Awareness”.

If you think that this sounds a bit extreme just think about the rate at which our privacy is slowly but surely being etched away and it won’t sound so extreme.  Big Brother is indeed watching you and not only that but he’s becoming more of a voyeur by the second.  It wouldn’t be surprising at all to find out someday that new electronics (computers, TV’s, cellphones, basically anything involving communications) are required to come equipped to permit government snooping and tracking of your activities with said device.

“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to kill me.”  –Anonymous

[Tags]privacy, gps, gasoline tax, federal fuel tax, road use tax, gps tracking, travel habits, travel records, surveillance, government snooping, onstar, warrantless wiretapping, domestic spying, nsa, email snoopng, illegal surveillance, illegal wiretapping[/tags]