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When Good Technology Goes Bad

A rather chilling case from Connecticut — the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that Acme Auto levied an illegal $150 fine against car renters that drove their car over 79 mph. How did the car rental company identify the speeders?

The global position systems installed in all of Acme's rental cars were programmed to fax the agency notice any time a car was driven at 80 mph or more for two minutes or longer. For each occurrence, the car agency charged the patron $150, usually levied immediately against whatever credit or debit card they had used to secure the rental. And how did the car renters find out about this system? Two had their credit or debit cards refused as they were cleaned out by the fines. GPS can obviously be helpful for car renters in unfamiliar territory. The potential for abuse is frightening, however.

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