Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track British drivers is planned  

The Guardian reports that Britain continues to lead the way in implementing George Orwell's vision of universal surveillance with a proposal to track new vehicles (ostensibly o reduce congestion and pollution) that sounds similar to outrageous schemes proposed in Holland and Oregon in recent months - Big Brother is watching: surveillance box to track drivers is backed.

The government is backing a project to install a "communication box" in new cars to track the whereabouts of drivers anywhere in Europe, the Guardian can reveal.

Under the proposals, vehicles will emit a constant "heartbeat" revealing their location, speed and direction of travel. The EU officials behind the plan believe it will significantly reduce road accidents, congestion and carbon emissions. A consortium of manufacturers has indicated that the router device could be installed in all new cars as early as 2013.

However, privacy campaigners warned last night that a European-wide car tracking system would create a system of almost total road surveillance.
Follow that car: 'The British government are the main backers' Link to this audio

Details of the Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS) project, a £36m EU initiative backed by car manufacturers and the telecoms industry, will be unveiled this year.

But the Guardian has been given unpublished documents detailing the proposed uses for the system. They confirm that it could have profound implications for privacy, enabling cars to be tracked to within a metre - more accurate than current satellite navigation technologies.