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Data protection
Page 9
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Barry Proctor wonders about the wisdom of allowing VOSA and the police such an open door to monitor all our dealings through modern technology...
In the last 10 years the pace of technological change has accelerated, particularly in terms of what is going into our trucks. Who'd have thought a few years back that we'd be able to fix, plot, monitor and generally keep tabs on the trucks and their performance while they were nowhere near the office. Technology has significantly changed the way we operate and has given us the opportunity to squeeze every last bit of performance improvement from them and our drivers.
This is an example of 'good' technology, but there's another side to this particular coin where it's used for 'evil', like a mad scientist with a laser beam plotting to take over the world. And there's the rub: with technology being so easy to use, it's also so very easy to misuse. Just look at the number of people who lose their way while browsing the internet for example. And while I'm happy, nay overjoyed at times, to have a trillion data readouts at my fingertips, ff worries me who else might find this information useful.
Certainly I imagine that VOSA and the police would like as much data as possible sent directly to them. And this worries me, Precisely how much of my company's electronic records should be sent out there? There will always be those who argue that good operators have nothing to hide, but still I feel hugely uncomfortable with this degree of transparency with the licensing authorities. It could only take one small transgression for VOSA to fall on us like ravening wolves, and we'd be handing these mistakes to them on a plate.
Ditto the technology behind the LRUC that looks as though it may well be a Trojan horse that allows the rest of the world to monitor my trucks. I imagine the police would be as keen as the criminal fraternity to get their hands on this information, albeit for different reasons. And as those who oppose government monitoring of citizens ask: Ouis custo diet ipsos custodes -Who guards the guardians?
Barry Proctor owns Barry Proctor Services, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire.