Manufacturers are now installing Electronic Data Recorders or EDRs (devices that record safety information before, during and after motor vehicles are involved in crashes) as standard equipment in the vast majority of vehicles and doing so with few guidelines about what kind of data ought to be collected and who owns the data. This notice of proposed rulemaking indicates NHTSA’s intentions to, among other things, give guidance to the auto industry in directing what data EDRs gather, which is an entirely appropriate function for NHTSA. In this discussion about the importance and limitations of EDRs, we at Consumers Union find ourselves at the intersection of our longstanding interest in promoting auto and highway safety and our longstanding concerns about protecting consumer privacy.