It's always important to read the fine print. Car dealers were reminded of that rule when logging onto the government's "cash for clunkers" Web page. In return for information about the Car Allowance Rebate System, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) required that dealers surrender all privacy on their private computer networks.
NHTSA's warning said: "When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorized CARS, [Department of Transportation] and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."
The American Civil Liberties Union showed no interest in investigating the invasion of privacy and would only comment to us that "it is hard to believe that [the Obama administration] would do something like this."
