BIRD'S EYE VIEW: Keeping Big Brother's nose out of my car

Date: 25 July 2008

Guy Bird is our editor-at-large and political columnist

It also seems to be the reason why Britain's biggest insurer, Norwich Union, has recently stopped offering its satellite-tracking 'pay as you drive' insurance. The scheme, launched back in 2006, was designed to offer cheaper insurance to drivers who could avoid higher-risk times like rush hour and late nights. Aircraft-style 'black box' devices were fitted to track each car's movements and customers charged accordingly, depending on where and when they travelled. But the take-up of the scheme was reportedly abysmal. Norwich Union originally hoped 100,000 boxes would be installed, but after almost two years the number was allegedly closer to 10,000. A spokesman for the insurer quoted in the Independent newspaper said: "The indication we had from the motor industry was that they would readily adopt telematic boxes. That would have reduced our costs. But it hasn't happened."

Maybe their target customers - occasional users and the young - simply decided to pay more for their insurance to keep a bit more privacy intact. The cliched and holier-than-thou riposte to those concerned about their liberty is always the same: "if you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about." But to that I say, define "wrong". Your vehicle's pay as you drive tracking wouldn't know if the conditions were clear and the roads empty when you last snuck over the speed limit or that your other half was only going to be in the shop 'a minute' while you loitered on a single yellow line without a parking ticket. And how sympathetic would the business paying for your insurance be after finding out you drove to a job interview with a rival firm in your current firm's company car (even after normal office hours)?

And who would really want to risk driving a car with this equipment, given some big firms' and the Government's hopeless record on keeping data secure?

Would those wanting to implement these tracking devices get tracked themselves? Not Gordon Brown, that's for sure. He'd cite security reasons for ducking out of surveillance, as would most of his political chums and big bosses. It came as no surprise that, when tracking schemes were first introduced in the UK at the end of the last century, the first staff to be monitored were lower down the fleet driver food chain - like occupational drivers of vans - because they were in less of a position to argue.

There are already enough Big Brother tactics in this country - the UK is the world record holder for CCTV camera coverage - so the halting of Norwich Union's tracking scheme is good news. Not just for normal humans sick of surveillance, but because it puts a little spanner into the Government plans to quietly assess such tracking schemes for future nationwide road-pricing schemes. Enjoy the small victory while it lasts.

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