cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1247209/all-cars-sold-in-the-eu-now-require-a-camera-aimed-at-your-face-its-still-not-clear-wher
Starting July 7, 2026, every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face. Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert.
Automakers have known this was coming for years. What they, and EU regulators, have never spelled out is what happens to that footage after the alert goes off.
While the intention behind the new system is difficult to dispute, its implementation has raised several concerns. Early real-world testing suggests the distraction warnings can be overly sensitive and potentially distracting.
All these fears and conjecture typically comes from paranoid Americans. In non shitholes, they have General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU AI Act. Essentially a HIPAA for personal data identification.
In Europe, the goal is to reduce:
Intoxicated driving
Distracted driving
Auto theft.
But Americans want to believe they are so important there is a committee of people in government watching their fascinating daily lives.
Homeland Security takes in petabytes of data every month and does nothing with it.