Stroock639

yea my driving data being used against me would definitely be a bad thing lol... i didn't buy an AMG to drive it slowly! i'm actually curious what an underwriter would think of my driving data, there'd be a greatly disproportionate amount of routine hard accelerations with no subsequent braking, since i only do the hard accelerations when there's a clear road and i can coast back down to 'regular' speeds lol

as a former GEICO auto insurance agent i know full well that these companies are run by literal soulless robots (just look up any video of todd combs speaking) who will look for ANY reason to raise your premium, so yea last thing i'd want is for my good rates to start factoring in my driving habits, habits that make sense in the right context but certainly not to an insurance underwriter

Hrocks

Agree 100% tex.
mmarshall's comments never fail to remind me of the old Saturday Night Live Weekend Update segment after co-anchor, Jane Curtain speaks, Chevy Chase turns, looks at her and says, "Jane you ignorant s lut!" (intentional misspelling)

SW17LS

I agree with mmarshall...I really don't care.

Data is the most valuable commodity of our age. Ever wondered what GMail is free? Because they mine your email for data that they can sell for a huge profit. Every piece of connected technology you use collects data and that data is used to make profit. Thats just the reality of life today.

What are you going to do? Are you not going to use a smartphone? Are you not going to drive a car with internet enabled features? All of this technology is too good and too compelling for me not to use it. So, they can collect all the data about me that they want.

Striker223

They aren't, my cars are not connected to anything. My gps systems are physically disabled and the modems are removed/disabled, I don't like cars having any external connections to anything for many reasons.

All the assist systems are locally run on a dedicated bus with a very interesting operation concept called flex ray. It was invented solely to facilitate closed system error free comms for those types of systems but be my few cars ended up using it due to expense etc

ABC

After reading some of this over the past few days, i ordered a copy of my lexis nexus report. Curious to see what is on it.

SW17LS

I’m going to do the same thing just for giggles.

BillUK

Yes, Gmail is free, in part because Google sells data to advertisers, but that data is anonymised, whereas this kind of data isn't. It's one thing to pass on anonymous data to highlight trends, but quite another to pass on personal data for commercial use.

What about when that data is used to reward or punish certain actions? Curently it looks like that's already the case with insurers using such data to increase premiums. That may seem harmless enough and, at a stretch, one could argue the benefits. However, what happens when people decide to monitor things like how much alcohol you buy, what websites you visit, what you post on social media. There may be some grounds for that regarding law enforcement, but historically access to such data has required things like a warrant and probable cause. If commercial organisations, or local and national government, can access virtually every aspect of your life, and determine how they treat you, according to how they judge that data, would you be so happy with that?

That may seem far fetched, but even today China has started running a social credit programme. Currently it's largely based around finacial credit information, and business compliance, which is fair enough, but there's also a social aspect too. At least one town has implemented a sytem whereby people are given or lose social credit points based on whether they comply with appoved behaviours, which then affects what services they can or can't have.

I agree that data is valuable, and that its use can be highly beneficial, but equally it can used to bad ends. In Europe we have GDPR regulations, which requires that businesses must seek permission to pass data to third parties. Any data they hold must be for legitimate reasons, and held securely, with substantial penalties for breaches. A user can at any time ask for what data is held, and ask for it to be deleted. There's no escaping the capture of more and more data, and no end to the uses it can be put to but, if people are to be free, they should be the ones in control of their data, and decide who can have access to it, and for what reasons.

Lexicon1

The next question is, what steps can you take on your existing software system in the car to un-link or un-check those boxes so as not to be reporting your driving habits or phone calls to another information gathering hub ?

Benoit

Sometimes you don't need to have nothing to hide, you are simply playing in the wrong team.

SW17LS

What you missed is these GM owners did authorize GM to collect and use this data, they opted in to this program.

You confuse "not caring" about something with "being happy about it". I never said I was happy about this, I just said I didn't care...and I don't. Nothing I can do about it so worrying about it does no good.

This is not China

You can not opt into this program like the people who had this info used against them did.

LH1

Even if I immediately disable the Lexus Enform App and anything like it on my car, I guarantee my car is still sending info to Toyota. What happens to that info is beyond my control.

I'm with Steve here. I'm not happy about it but what can any of us realistically do?

LH1

Now if @Striker223 and @Stroock639 driving data gets sent out, IMSA will be calling them to Sebring this weekend lol.

Mike728

I've read that people were signed up by the tech specialist, or whatever they're called at GM, unbeknownst to the owner. The dealer gets a cut from people that they sign up, so there's an incentive.

SW17LS

Buyer beware...if this is something that is important to them they need to make sure that they understand what they are opting into. If I was asked "would you like OnStar to track your driving and make suggestions about how you could be a safer driver?" I would say no.

Striker223

Doubt it lol! I don't drive past 9/10ths much so I would be inexperienced at the edge so I would be useless in racing until I'm practiced with that.