Kill switches on cars and cell phones and computers?

Wired magazine writes about the coming days of kill switches on our technology, designed to "protect us", ala a breathalyzer that won't let a car start or cell phones that turn themselves off on airplanes.

Such technology raises very serious invasion of privacy questions.  It also verges on the idea that we are guilty before proven innocent, reversing 200+ years of American legal tradtion.

Wired writes:

Once we go down this path — giving one device authority over other devices — the security problems start piling up. Who has the authority to limit functionality of my devices, and how do they get that authority? What prevents them from abusing that power? Do I get the ability to override their limitations? In what circumstances, and how? Can they override my override?

How do we prevent this from being abused? Can a burglar, for example, enforce a "no photography" rule and prevent security cameras from working? Can the police enforce the same rule to avoid another Rodney King incident? Do the police get "superuser" devices that cannot be limited, and do they get "supercontroller" devices that can limit anything? How do we ensure that only they get them, and what do we do when the devices inevitably fall into the wrong hands?

I agree with their concerns wholeheartedly. 

The more such advancements arise, the more I see our liberties as we once knew them slipping away.

 

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