Privacy-aware event data recorders: cryptography meets the automotive industry again

Vehicles are equipped with more technology with each passing day. Acronyms such as ABS (anti-lock braking system), EBD (electronic brakeforce distribution) or EPS (electric power steering) have become commonplace, and are used as synonyms for safety and comfort. On the contrary, others like EDR (event data recorder) are not as popular. EDR, commonly known as automotive black boxes, are devices used to collect data about a vehicle and its occupants, which can be accessed after an accident to clarify its cause. With the upcoming regulation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requiring manufacturers to include EDR in all new vehicles, privacy advocates have raised some alarms related to the storage of and access to these data. In this article, we propose a novel privacy-aware solution for the EDR of modern vehicles. Our solution is based on modern cryptographic primitives like timed release encryption (TRE), and it guarantees the privacy of the vehicle´s occupants while allowing the full functionality of EDR in case of emergency.