If you love a good conspiracy theory, a Senior Executive at Ford just gave you another reason to believe that “big brother” is monitoring every aspect of your life. 

James Farley, Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford Motor Company. Photo from ford media.com

Just when we had gotten used to the idea of the NSA collecting all the “metadata,” which is simply collecting data about data (or every piece of data that can be collected), now we have corporations collecting data about our activities. 

Google has long been the subject of data collection conspiracy theorists, but we never expected to hear that Ford Motor Company installs devices that capture every detail of our driving. From where we are at certain time to how fast we are going and what routes we take. 

Ford Group Vice President Marketing and Communications Jim Farley explained how much data is being collected by the company at the CES electronic trade show in Las Vegas. “We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you’re doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing,” Ford’s Jim Farley told a Vegas crowd.

While that thought was sinking in to the assembled crowd, Farley added,”By the way, we don’t supply that information to anyone.”

Perhaps that information is not supplied to anyone yet, but there might be a day when data is asked for and collected by agencies acting in the interest of the government within the boundaries of the Patriot act.

Is your shiny new Mustang telling on you? As many as 96 percent of the cars mass-produced in 2013 included event data recorders, similar to the black boxes that log information inside airplanes.

Whether the information is currently shared or not is less concerning than the overall feeling that Orwell’s prediction of a 1984 society where “big brother” and the party conduct secret surveillance on the public.

Has technology finally gotten to the point where parking and speeding tickets could be issued based on GPS equipment implanted in your brand new shiny car? How long before thoughtcrimes are punishable?