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A new protocol allowing configured cars to network together to share data sounds interesting, but I am more interested in what type of “data” the privacy experts would be concerned with. Could “hackerz” infect your car? Would your GPS data become public? Could your driving history become accessible? What are the potentials for stalking? Could police use the network to send a “Shut Down” command to a suspect vehicle?

Now, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, there are some useful potentials for this tech beyond just Internet access. Real Time traffic conditions, accident reporting, vehicle theft deterrents, Amber Alerts, etc.

The biggest concerns we should have are the artificial limits we place on technologies for our personal privacy and protections if the system were to be abused, vs the perceived usefulness of any technology and the comforts we get from it.

Researchers are turning cars into nodes that ‘talk’ to each other, forming a new type of wireless network.
As cars enter the mobile network, drivers can download multimedia – including movies, images and songs – or get real-time information about traffic.
“Say you are driving and a car that is [5 kilometres] in front of you spots an icy spot on the road. It can trigger back a signal saying, ‘Look, there is an icy road’,” says Dr Giovanni Pau, from the Network Research Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Such a network could also give emergency first-responders a reliable channel if a natural disaster destroys communication towers or access points.
The system uses a vehicle’s onboard computer, GPS, low-cost sensors, custom software written by the team, and existing wireless channels.

What if this technology was adapted to cell phones and laptops, where every device in use became a node in a web enabling broadband access without the current restrictions of access points, hotspots, cell towers, etc. Of course, the nodes address and possible location would be able to be determined as well, probably the owner’s personal information would be located in someone’s DB.  How would you like to be traceable at every moment of every day? Where you went, who you were with, how fast you got there? 

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1949084.htm

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