Panama is the site of The Summit of the Americas. It's an international meeting being held today and tomorrow in Panama City, the capital. The summit includes dozens of leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere and it focuses on cooperation between countries and addressing the challenges facing the people of the Americas. This is the seventh summit since 1994. It's the first one that Cuba will attend.

 

President Obama has moved toward normalizing U.S. relations with the communist country. He doesn't have a formal meeting scheduled with Cuban President Raul Castro. But the two leaders are expected to interact on the sidelines of the summit. That's one thing that Western leaders will be keeping their eyes on.

 

We've talked a lot about how the leading cause of death for American teenagers are car crashes. But today's second story isn't about the distractions that can lead to them, it's about new software popping up in cars that's intended to keep young drivers safer on the road. One of these programs allows parents to limit the speed of the car. Others can send them text messages if you drive outside an area they've decided on or notify parents if you're racing people, slamming on your brakes or just when you get to school.

 

General Motors' just unveiled teen driver tracking in its new Chevy Malibu. Personally, I'm a crusader for convenience, but this stuff is bordering on spy tech. 

 

If you've ever used the Internet, you know how tempting it is to trade your privacy for convenience. You might not even know that most cars on the road today have black boxes that, in the event of a crash, can tell investigators how you were driving. Then again, what if teen driver monitoring were used to track a non-teen?

 

"We don't think that the privacy situation is, is something that will have to be concerned about. What we believe we have to do is we have to get the consent of the owner up front. We have to explain the features, what we're doing. We have to get their consent and we do. And if the customer doesn't want it, then we don't go forward. It's as simple as that."

 

That means you need to be paying attention. You should actually read that long anything user agreement and understand what you're sharing with some big car company computer out there, because soon, you won't be able to find a car without this kind of technology.