Big Brother is Always Watching

I thought I heard something on the radio the other day about a new technology that was going to be able to shut off cell phones when being used in moving cars.

As the number one rule breaker of the cell phone law, I thought I'd do a little research to see what this was all about, but found something else instead ~ I stumbled upon an article that talked about how business was booming for makers of shut-off devices. But, not shut-off devices for phones, shut-off devices for cars!

.

These devices turn off the engines of cars when payments are late. And, from what it sounds like, as consumer's credit ratings plummet, more manufacturers jump on board, which may soon leave more American’s driving around with an electronic Big Brother on board.

While the devices have mostly been used in the subprime auto loan market, other lenders are looking closely at the technology. As American consumer’s creditworthiness declines and job lose increases, it becomes harder to tap into home equity ~ making more auto dealers interested in this technology.

With the state of the economy, financially stretched consumers have to figure out what bills they are going to pay -- and what payments they have to postpone. Car dealers and lenders want to make sure it's not their loan payments that fall to the bottom of the pile.

I'll do a little more poking around on that cell phone issue, because I for one, could use that, but for right now, I am just going to freaked out about the fact that someone else has so much control over our lives, that they can just shut off our cars! Yikes.