Proposed new federal rule could put 'big brother' in your driver's seat

Transcription

1 Proposed new federal rule could put 'big brother' in your driver's seat By Doug McKelway Published August 12, 2013 FoxNews.com A proposed federal rule that would require black boxes or event data recorders (EDRs) in every U.S. automobile may mean Big Brother could be in your passenger seat for every drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule requires all light passenger vehicles be equipped with an EDR by Sep.1, Ninety- six percent of new cars already have them - - measuring such inputs as speed, lateral acceleration, pedal effort, seat belt use, wheel spin, steering wheel turn and direction. They only record information in the brief period before and after a crash. But black box data retrieved from U.S. car accidents in a single day would provide more information than a year's worth of crash testing, says Tom Kowalick, who heads the design team that is standardizing the devices for automakers worldwide. But he also said he fears that for all their potential good, the EDRs present a massive privacy dilemma, and an opportunity for fraudsters. "They can take that odometer and roll that odometer back to zero, he said. They can change the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which is in the computer. And once they do that, then it's okay for them to very simply steal the motor vehicle and move it away." Kowalick points out that YouTube has hundreds of clips that demonstrate how to hack into automobile EDRs. "Look at the number of people who are making tools, electronic tools, to do these things. You'll find hundreds of thousands of people who are already clicking onto these sites. And they must be doing that for some purpose," he said. The potential for malfeasance is huge, but so is the access EDRs give to law enforcement and insurance companies, who could download EDR data to determine whether a motorist is at fault in an accident. But that, too, presents ethical dilemmas, should an insurer examine a customer s pattern of speeding to withdraw coverage or increase premiums, or worse, manipulate speed data to evade an accident pay- out. Overlaid with GPS data, or with new D.U.I. interlock technology now under consideration for all automobiles, some say the black box could become a Pandora's box of Fourth Amendment violations against unlawful search and seizure. Jeramie Scott of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said, "We just want data to be owned by the vehicle owners so it's required that their consent is given when the data is retrieved, whether it's by insurance companies or law enforcement or others." The comment period for the NHTSA proposed EDR rule ended last February. The final rule has not yet been published. Read more: new- federal- rule- could- put- big- brother- in- your- driver- seat/#ixzz2btfznzcn

2 'Boyfriend Tracker' App Creates Controversy RIO DE JANEIRO August 22, 2013 (AP) By JENNY BARCHFIELD Associated Press Brazilians were outraged when they learned their country was a top target of the U.S. National Security Agency's overseas spying operation, with data from billions of calls and s swept up in Washington's top secret surveillance program. Yet when it comes to the cloak and dagger effort of catching philandering lovers, all high- tech weapons appear to be fair game at least to the tens of thousands of Brazilians who downloaded "Boyfriend Tracker" to their smartphones before the stealthy software was removed from the Google Play app store last week, apparently in response to complaints about privacy abuses and its potential to be used for extortion or even stalking. "Brazilians are a jealous people, what can I say? Of course it's going to be popular," said Marcia Almeida, a 47- year- old woman in Rio whose marriage ended seven years ago in large part because of what she said was her husband's infidelity. "It's a different type of spying," she said of comparisons to the NSA surveillance program. "You're checking up on somebody you know intimately, not some stranger." The app, called "Rastreador de Namorados" (Portuguese for Boyfriend Tracker), promises to act like a "private detective in your partner's pocket." Functions include sending the person doing the tracking updates on their partner's location and forwarding duplicates of text message traffic from the targeted phone. There is even a command that allows a user to force the target phone to silently call their own, like a pocket dial, so they can listen in on what the person is saying. Similar apps are marketed for smartphone users in other countries, including Europe and the U.S., but Boyfriend Tracker is the first that has made any impact in Brazil, a country still irate as it learns more about Washington's snooping. Brazil has sent a government delegation to meet with U.S. leaders about the spy program that was revealed by Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who has been on the run since May and was recently granted asylum in Russia. Google spokeswoman Gina Johnson said by that as a policy the company doesn't comment on why apps are removed. Critics say even as advertised, apps like Boyfriend Tracker can violate privacy rights, and they warn that in the wrong hands they could be used for more sinister purposes, like stalking. Some in Brazil argue it breaks an anti- online harassment and hacking law in place since April. The law is named after Brazilian

3 actress Carolina Dieckmann, who had nude photos of herself leaked by hackers in 2012 after she refused to pay about $5,000. However, similar apps popular on Google Play market themselves to parents as a means of monitoring how teenage children use the phone and where they are at any given moment. Matheus Grijo, a 24- year- old Sao Paulo- based developer behind Boyfriend Tracker, says it has attracted around 50,000 users since its launch about two months ago, most since the site began attracting media attention two weeks ago. Grijo insists his lawyer vetted the app and determined it does not violate any Brazilian laws. Despite being removed by Google, it is still available via direct download from his company's website. A disclaimer on that website stipulates the app is for "social and recreational use" and absolves the developer of responsibility for any misuse. The first line of the download instructions says a woman installing the tracker on her boyfriend's phone should do so "with his consent." "We are waiting for Google's position on the removal of 'Boyfriend Tracker' from Google Play, which we consider an error," read a posting on a Facebook page Grijo set up for the app. To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon. Grijo said the app began as a joke between him and his girlfriend but the idea quickly caught on among their friends. "In Brazil, we have this culture of switching partners really quickly, so this is a way of dealing with that," said Grijo. "People really appreciate having a tool to help them find out whether they're being cheated on." He acknowledged that "of course some people are against it, but on balance the response from users has been positive." He said he's received messages of gratitude from around 50 people who used the app to ferret out their partners' infidelity. While cheating in Brazil cuts both ways, the app is clearly marketed to women suspicious of their male partners, right down to the name. Postings on the app's Facebook page exhort: "Girls, share this." Still, Grijo insisted he personally has never given his girlfriends any reason to worry. "I've had three steady girlfriends until now but I've never had these kinds of issues," he said. Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks contributed to this report. tracker- app- raises- stir- brazil ?singlePage=true

4 Breakthrough: Electronic circuits that are integrated with your skin A team of engineers today announced a discovery that could change the world of electronics forever. Called an "epidermal electronic system" (EES), it's basically an electronic circuit mounted on your skin, designed to stretch, flex, and twist and to take input from the movements of your body. EES is a leap forward for wearable technologies, and has potential applications ranging from medical diagnostics to video game control and accelerated wound-healing. Engineers John Rogers and Todd Coleman, who worked on the discovery, tell io9 it's a huge step towards erasing the divide that separates machine and human. Coleman and Rogers say they developed EES to forego the hard and rigid electronic "wafer" format of traditional electronics in favor of a softer, more dynamic platform. To accomplish this, their team brought together scientists from several labs to develop "filamentary serpentine" (threadlike and squiggly) circuitry. When this circuitry is mounted on a thin, rubber substrate with elastic properties similar to skin, the result is a flexible patch that can bend and twist, or expand and contract, all without affecting electronic performance. This video demonstrates the resilience of the EES patch, and how easily it can be applied. The patch (comprised of the circuitry and rubber substrate) is first mounted on a thin sheet of water-soluble plastic, then applied to the skin with water like a temporary tattoo. How Will We Wear Our Second Skin? So what can an EES really do for us? The short answer is: a lot. In the paper describing their new technology, published in this week's issue of Science, the researchers illustrated the adaptability of their concept by demonstrating functionality in a wide array of electronic components, including biometric sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors, wireless antennas, and even conductive coils and solar cells for power. We asked Rogers what he thought were the most promising applications for the new technology. He said medicine was the most compelling: Our paper demonstrates our ability to monitor ECG (as a monitor of heart disease and metabolism), EMG (as a measure of, among other things, gait during walking) and EEG (as a measure of cognitive state and awareness). We have also shown that these same devices can stimulate muscle tissue to induce contractions. When combined with sensing/monitoring, such modes of use could be valuable in physical rehabilitation. We also have interest in sleep monitoring (for sleep apnea), and neo-natal care (monitoring premature babies, in particular). According to Rogers, the electronic skin has already been shown to monitor patients' health measurements as effectively as conventional state-of-the-art electrodes that require bulky pads, straps, and irritating adhesive gels. "The fidelity of the measurement is equal to the best existing technology that is out there today, but in a very unique skin-like form," he explained.

5 What's more, the electronic skin's unique properties allow it to do things that existing biometric sensors simply can't touch. Todd Coleman, who co-led the project with Rogers, told io9 how an EES could be applied to a person's throat to serve as a communication aid: Within the realm of biomedical applications, one can imagine providing benefits to patients with muscular or neurological disorders like ALS. For example, in the Science article, our research group used the device to control a computer strategy game with muscles in the throat by speaking the commands. In principle, the same function could have been achieved by simply mouthing commands rather than speaking them out loud. As such, this capability could be provided to ALS patients so that they could "speak" through an epidermal electronics system that is un-noticeable to them, and invisible to other observers. Eroding the Distinction Between Machine and Human Outside the context of biomedicine, the EES's inconspicuous nature opens up a whole world of possibilities. The patches are already barely noticeable, but when mounted directly onto a temporary tattoo, for example, any evidence of electronic circuitry disappears. Coleman said: [This technology] provides a huge conceptual advance in wedding the biological world to the cyber world in a manner that is very natural. In some sense, the boundary between the electronics world and the biological world is becoming increasingly amorphous. The ramifications of this are mind-blowing, to say the least. I envision endless applications that extend beyond biomedical applications. For example, we could use the exact same technology and specifically its discrete tattoo-like appearance to perform covert military operations where an agent could communicate to the command station with these electric signals without ever speaking a word. Coleman's statement touches on what is perhaps this most important thing about today's announcement, namely the precedent it sets for future technologies that aim to combine the organismal with the synthetic. "The blurring of electronics and biology is really the key point here," said Northwestern University's Yonggang Huang, with whom Rogers and Coleman collaborated. "All established forms of electronics are hard, rigid. Biology is soft, elastic. It's two different worlds. This is a way to truly integrate them." Looking to the future, Rogers echoes his colleague's sentiments. Describing what he envisions for his research group in the coming years, he said: We would like to expand the functionality such that the devices not only seamlessly integrate with the human body in a mechanical sense, but that they also communicate and interact with the tissue in modes that go beyond electrons and photons (the currency' of semiconductor device technologies), to the level of fluids and biomolecules (i.e. the currency' of biology). We are hoping, in this way, to blur the distinction between electronics and the human body, in ways that can advance human health.

6 Nanotech could make humans immortal by 2040, futurist says Ray Kurzweil says nanobots will soon wipe out cancer, back up memories and slow aging By Sharon Gaudin October 1, 2009 In 30 or 40 years, we'll have microscopic machines traveling through our bodies, repairing damaged cells and organs, effectively wiping out diseases. The nanotechnology will also be used to back up our memories and personalities. In an interview with Computerworld, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil said that anyone alive come 2040 or 2050 could be close to immortal. The quickening advance of nanotechnology means that the human condition will shift into more of a collaboration of man and machine, as nanobots flow through human blood streams and eventually even replace biological blood, he added. That may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but Kurzweil, a member of the Inventor's Hall of Fame and a recipient of the National Medal of Technology, says that research well underway today is leading to a time when a combination of nanotechnology and biotechnology will wipe out cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and diabetes. It'll also be a time when humans will augment their natural cognitive powers and add years to their lives, Kurzweil said. "It's radical life extension," Kurzweil said. "The full realization of nanobots will basically eliminate biological disease and aging. I think we'll see widespread use in 20 years of [nanotech] devices that perform certain functions for us. In 30 or 40 years, we will overcome disease and aging. The nanobots will scout out organs and cells that need repairs and simply fix them. It will lead to profound extensions of our health and longevity." Of course, people will still be struck by lightning or hit by a bus, but much more trauma will be repairable. If nanobots swim in, or even replace, biological blood, then wounds could be healed almost instantly. Limbs could be regrown. Backed up memories and personalities could be accessed after a head trauma. Today, researchers at MIT already are using nanoparticles to deliver killer genes that battle latestage cancer. The university reported just last month the nano-based treatment killed ovarian cancer, which is considered to be one of the most deadly cancers, in mice. And earlier this year, scientists at the University of London reported using nanotechnology to blast cancer cells in mice with "tumor busting" genes, giving new hope to patients with inoperable tumors. So far, tests have shown that the new technique leaves healthy cells undamaged. With this kind of work going on now, Kurzweil says that by 2024 we'll be adding a year to our life expectancy with every year that passes. "The sense of time will be running in and not running out," he added. "Within 15 years, we will reverse this loss of remaining life expectancy. We will be adding more time than is going by."

7 And in 35 to 40 years, we basically will be immortal, according to the man who wrote The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Kurzweil also maintains that adding microscopic machines to our bodies won't make us any less human than we are today or were 500 years ago. "The definition of human is that we are the species that goes beyond our limitations and changes who we are," he said. "If that wasn't the case, you and I wouldn't be around because at one point life expectancy was 23. We've extended ourselves in many ways. This is an extension of who we are. Ever since we picked up a stick to reach a higher branch, we've extended who we are through tools. It's the nature of human beings to change who we are." But that doesn't mean there aren't parts of this future that don't worry him. With nanotechnology so advanced that it can travel through our bodies and affect great change on them, come dangers as well as benefits. The nanobots, he explained, will be self-replicating and engineers will have to harness and contain that replication. "You could have some self-replicating nanobot that could create copies of itself... and ultimately, within 90 replications, it could devour the body it's in or all humans if it becomes a non-biological plague," said Kurzweil. "Technology is not a utopia. It's a double-edged sword and always has been since we first had fire."