IBM has won a deal to install automobile tracking technology for the government, reports CNET.

The four-year deal, expected to be announced on Friday, calls for IBM to equip cars and trucks with a telematics device and GPS (Global Positioning System) that will provide information on a vehicle's location and speed to government agencies. It will link tens of thousands of vehicles in a nationwide wireless network. IBM asserts this will be the largest application of telematics--or the marriage of mobile communications and computing--as of yet.

Before you begin to panic, this technology will be deployed in the United Arab Emirates, and not the United States. But given the way our civil liberties have been eroded over time, limited implementation of this technology in America doesn't seem too far off.