Data collected by cars and sold to third parties
summary
Automakers are aggressively collecting and selling sensitive driver behavior data to third parties, often without clear consumer consent. This practice creates financial risks for drivers, such as increased insurance premiums, and persists because the data economy provides a strong profit motive for manufacturers. Current legislative efforts are insufficient because they focus on data ownership rather than preventing the initial over-collection of information.
key points
- Most major car companies employ confusing, overlapping privacy policies that make it nearly impossible for users to understand or opt out of data collection.
- The FTC's penalty against General Motors highlights how driver data is monetized by brokers to create risk profiles for insurance companies, directly impacting consumer costs.
- Privacy advocates argue that giving users the right to delete data is an inadequate solution if the system still allows companies to collect excessive information by default.
who should read it
Vehicle owners and privacy-conscious consumers who want to understand how their cars track them and the limitations of current legal protections.
discussion skeptical
consensus
Commenters generally agree that software-based privacy settings in modern vehicles are insufficient to stop telemetry and data collection. The prevailing sentiment is one of distrust toward manufacturers, with many advocating for physical interventions like pulling fuses or disconnecting antennas to ensure privacy. There is a shared concern that vehicles are becoming 'smartphones on wheels' with planned obsolescence and invasive tracking.
top insight
A user noted that telemetry data often flows from the manufacturer to vendors and brokers before reaching third parties like Carfax, meaning the owner is often the only person without a record of their own car's data. This suggests that privacy requests to consumer reporting agencies like LexisNexis and Verisk may be more effective for auditing what information is being collected than checking car settings.
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