We should have known about all this years ago. Too much invasion of privacy.
The recorders have been in place on many vehicles for several years now. They weren’t publicized or at least didn’t get that much attention it seems. GM has been using a version since back in the mid 90s and Ford started in early 2000 I believe.
Here is a listing in PDF format by mfg/model/date of EDRs in use.
http://www.harristechnical.com/downloads/cdrlist.pdf