A black box in your car to tell insurers you've crashed: Device will also alert the emergency services to the accident | Mail Online
- New cars will be fitted with the black box device to tell insurers of a crash
- Box will also alert the emergency services to the accident
- But data protection campaigners fear it could lead to Big Brother style surveillance
By Ray Massey, Transport Editor
Published: 19:51 EST, 11 July 2014 | Updated: 03:11 EST, 12 July 2014
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A black box inside your car will tell insurers when you've crashed and also alert the emergency services (file picture)
All new cars are to be fitted with a ‘black box’ that could tell your insurer the moment you are involved in a crash.
The devices will also alert the emergency services to the accident – but data protection campaigners fear it could lead to ‘Big Brother surveillance’ of millions of motorists.
They fear drivers will have their habits and destinations recorded and potentially sold on for commercial gain.
Insurance firms already offer cut-price cover for drivers willing to have their every move recorded on a memory card under the dashboard to prove they are safe drivers.
But EU legislation will make it compulsory for every new car to have an electronic ‘SOS’ black box system linked to satellite tracking that will alert the authorities to a crash.
Some systems can tell how many people are in the car thanks to sensors in the seats, or even allow the police to slow a car down remotely if it is stolen.
Web-based Insurethebox.com, which has 350,000 drivers who already use black boxes, said: ‘The data is used to assess driving safety, as well as to assist claims handling.
‘Our service centre receives an alert whenever the data suggests a car may have been involved in an accident.
'The box also works as a tracking device, so we can help police to locate the car in the event of a theft.’ Insurethebox said data collected from its customers was never sold on to third parties.
Insurance firms already offer cut-price cover for drivers willing to have their every move recorded on a memory card (file picture)
Vauxhall is to install similar technology into all of its new cars from next year.
But Emma Carr of Big Brother Watch said: ‘There is a risk that drivers will lose control over who has access to their data and how they will use it.
It is easy to imagine government departments and commercial companies, including the insurance industry, will be clamouring to get hold of drivers’ information.’