SEVERAL car owners have learned that carmakers track and sell the data that reveals their driving habits.
As this intrusive issue comes to light for drivers, it raises serious privacy concerns among car the Owners.
As it has recently come to the attention of several drivers that car manufacturers are sharing their data, some of them feel that the car manufacturers have not obtained their informed consent.
Additionally, information collected and shared by manufacturers can potentially be used to target drivers for advertising and other commercial purposes.
Several companies had been receiving detailed data about a driver for months.
Since she bought a new GM-made Chevrolet Bolt in December with her husband, they have been unable to drive privately.
Kashmir Hill’s Husband Obtained ‘Consumer Disclosure Files’ From Two Data Brokers Working With the Auto Insurance Industry Containing Information About Them, The New York Time Reporter explained.
The files also indicated that GM was sharing the data with the companies LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk.
The driver said the report he received showed a layout of more than 200 trips the couple made in the vehicle.
His driving habits had been monitored since January.
The information recorded included the distance traveled, as well as the start and end times of their trips.
A GM spokeswoman told Hill that data collection only happens with people who have OnStar activated.
That said, Hill connected the vehicle to the MyChevrolet app to see if their car was connected to a program called Smart Driver and it told her they were not enrolled.
When they discovered this month that they were being monitored because GM was sharing their data, her husband logged into a browser-based version of his GM account page.
The website said their car was enrolled in OnStar.
GM said the discrepancy between the app and website was the result of “a bug” that affected a “small population” of its customers.
WHAT DATA CAN CAR MANUFACTURERS SHARE ABOUT DRIVERS?
The issue of security has raised serious privacy concerns among car owners as it monitors driving-related information and even shares it.
- Car trip dates
- Trip start and end times.
- Amount of time spent driving.
- The distance traveled.
- Any excess speed.
- Sudden braking.
- Sudden accelerations.
SOURCE: The New York Times
She emphasized that although she and her husband were the drivers and owners of the vehicle, they were unable to obtain information about how they drove – but insurance companies could.
The LexisNexis report also showed how often drivers hit the brakes hard and when they hit the gas to quickly accelerate the vehicle.
The Verisk report they received recorded data from their vehicle since mid-December.
He was also much more specific about what he shared of the recorded data.
It told the couple that they had taken 297 trips and even included a detailed summary of their driving habits.
It showed that his new Chevy Bolt had driven exactly 3,890.89 miles.
The report provided an overview of how much time they spent driving the car, minute by minute.
Verisk logged more than 4,251 minutes of driving, 170 hard stops and 24 rapid accelerations, Hill admitted.
If they had committed any speeding in the car, that would have been reflected in the report as well.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
