Big Brother is always watching.

Don’t live in denial anymore. Yes, it even happens in Austin.

Twenty years ago, it wasn’t the case as much. Ten years ago, it started getting worse, especially with the Internet starting to come of age.

Now, it seems like someone’s always looking over your shoulder -- without you even knowing about it.

And now it apparently extends to renting a car.

Some rental car companies are starting to put tracking devices in the car. They reason it’s to make sure their vehicles don’t get stolen.

Fair enough.

But a recent lawsuit against a Budget Rent a Car licensee indicates they’re watching the renter’s every move, including every single place the car is driven.

The devices in some of these cars feature the Global

Positioning System. That’s GPS to those of us who pretend to know what it means.

Anyway, a bunch of lawsuits were launched against a Budget licensee out of Tucson, Ariz. Some folks renting from this agency were driving the cars to places

they weren’t supposed to.

Remember the fine print in the rental car agreement that none of us read. Yeah, it was under that.

So when these folks got their credit card bill the next month,

they were pretty shocked to find additional charges tacked on. The agency says it’s because these people took the

cars where they weren’t supposed to and they found out about it.

And they let the folks know about it. I mean, when they confronted the renters, they even told them what hotels they had been staying in.

Talk about being busted.

If the agency wasn’t looking over their shoulder, they were at least in the back seat.

Another company out of Connecticut was charging folks for

going more than 79 mph in the rental cars. The company was eventually ordered to refund the fines and excess charges.

I can understand breaking the rules (a little bit) when it comes to driving your rental car where you’re not supposed to. If I owned the business, I wouldn’t want a bunch of folks driving it from Arizona to Florida and back within short time (that actually happened to one of them).

Not only would I be concerned about the miles, but Grandma wouldn’t be behind the wheel for that trip.

But when it comes to having someone regulate how fast I can drive, a line must be drawn.

A car (or truck) is our domain. Our sanctuary. It’s our own time to make important decisions that not only can affect our lives, but others.

And when I want to get somewhere, I don’t want to worry about a satellite five miles up tracking how fast I’m going.

It’s my business. And maybe the cop who stops me.

But it’s not getting better for any of us. Before you know, we’ll all be hoping for silence when we ask the latest catch phrase.

"Can you hear me now?"

Dan Fields can be reached at 434-2230 or by e-mail at :mailto:dan.fields@austindailyherald.com