A lot of people are fussing about Event Data Recorders (known as EDRs), and the NHTSA is now going to require auto manufacturers to disclose whether they've been installed.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has passed a regulation requiring car makers to inform customers when their car has been equipped with an Event Data Recorder, the agency said Monday.

EDRs, similar to "black boxes" used in commercial airliners, record data about what a car is doing in the moments just before and after a crash. They do not record the voices of occupants but they do record things like speed, steering wheel movement, how hard the brakes are being pressed and the actual movement of the car itself.

About 64 percent of model year 2005 cars were equipped with EDRs, according to NHTSA. Some manufacturers already include information about the EDR in the owners manual, but not all, said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for NHTSA.

"If you have a new vehicle, chances are it's got one," he said.

Data from the recorders is used by law enforcement and attorneys to recreate events directly leading up to an accident. Data is also used by car companies to research how cars and drivers perform in actual crashes.

Some privacy advocates have expressed concern that the data, which can be used as evidence in court cases, is being collected without the knowledge of vehicle owners and drivers.

The devices are virtually impossible to disable because their functioning is so tightly integrated with vehicle safety systems such as airbags and anti-lock brakes.

I wonder if they asked the geeks who've managed to hack their way past almost every security system yet invented by man.

Right now, there's nothing illegal about disabling Big Brother's EDRs (assuming you can find someone who knows how). USA Today editorialized that if it's in your car, it's yours:

Since EDRs are becoming standard equipment, the device and its data should belong to car buyers, just as they own the muffler or tires.

But I see (via the NSCL's web site) that already in New York, Assembly Bill 6093 "makes tampering with, disabling, or removal of such device a misdemeanor."

Hurry up geeks!

Before they close the loophole!

(My instincts tell me that they wouldn't be making it illegal to do something which is in fact "impossible.")

UPDATE: In addition to the concerns I've expressed, there are also Fifth Amendment issues:

....there are concerns the information may be used to harass some drivers or encroach consumer privacy rights.

"It won't be long before someone says you can't have access to my event data recorder because it is a violation of my Fifth Amendment rights," said Michael Khoury, a lawyer with Southfield law firm Raymond & Prokop.

MORE: Eric Peters warns that the devices will soon be tied to GPS devices, and that there's an unholy alliance between the government and insurance companies:

The automakers are just as eager to keep tabs on us as the government -- in part to keep the lawyers who have been so successfully digging into their deep pockets at bay. EDRs would provide irrefutable evidence of high-speed driving, for example -- or make it impossible for a person injured in a crash to deny he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Insurance companies will launch "safety" campaigns urging that "we use available technology" to identify "unsafe" drivers -- and who will be able to argue against that? Everyone knows that speeding is against the law -- and if you aren't breaking the law, what have you got to worry about?

It's all for our own good.