From the article:
The pilots' union responded with fury, branding the recorder a snooping device, and insisted "no plane would take off in Australia with Big Brother listening". That was one of his better reviews. Australia's civilian aviation authorities declared it had "no immediate significance", and the air force feared it would "yield more expletives than explanations"
I guess the fear of Big Brother is why even modern CVRs are only capable of preserving a few hours of audio. Which could be insufficient in some accidents.
Fast forward 60 years, to the 2019 final report from the Air Niugini crash, where an iPhone recording from the cockpit jump seat helped the investigation greatly:
The PNG Accident Investigation Commission recommends that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of PNG should draft Civil Aviation Rule(s) to require the fitment of image recorders in the cockpit [...]
The response of the authorities to that recommendation, in part:
[...]this is not an ICAO Standard and therefore cannot be justified for rule making[...]
The NTSB has a different opinion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20131203...ety/mwl-7.html
In other cases, even with better techniques, better tools, multiple onboard computers, and data and voice recorders, some questions remain unanswered because we lack the first-hand knowledge that can only be gleaned from image recordings. Although image recorder technology is relatively low cost, its use remains voluntary throughout the transportation system. Further, the use of recorded information for operational and safety oversight purposes provides an opportunity to identify and address safety issues before accidents occur. While some operators have implemented or are in the process of implementing such programs, regulatory requirements to do so are nonexistent, and most operators across the transportation industry are not proactive in this area.
What can be done . . .
Most of the difficult work has already been accomplished by the industry. Low-cost, compact image recorders capable of storing several hours of information are readily available. We simply need the regulations to require their use, where the expectations for promoting safety are higher and therefore outweigh some privacy concerns.