I saw the article about hundreds of Fords spontaneously catching fire, supposedly because of a defective switch design attached to the master cylinder. It has a lead going to it that is always hot, even when the vehicle is turned off. I went out and checked my Mazda pickup (a rebadged Ford Ranger). Sure enough, there was the same switch and one of the leads was hot. This morning I cut and sealed off the hot lead and found a wire going to the windshield wiper which was only hot when the vehicle was switched on, so I jumped a lead from there to the switch.
On testing, the cruise control works normally, as do the lights and wipers. I feel better that this is one less potential problem.
I am NOT advocating that you do the same. Don't fool around with an electrical system if you don't know what you are doing.