Imagine if your insurance company raised your rates because your car has been spying on you, sending information which ends up with data brokers every time you brake too hard, drive at night, or go over the speed limit.
It is what the Federal Trade Commission said happened to drivers of General Motors vehicles with the OnStar Smart Driver feature. Now the commission has ordered the data transfers be stopped.
Lena Cohen, staff technologist for the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said some drivers had no idea they had enrolled in the feature because car salespeople signed them up without telling them to get an enrollment bonus.
"But even drivers who did realize they'd signed up for these OnStar features didn't realize the extent of the data they were sharing and what that data was being used for," Cohen explained.
GM said in a statement the company has discontinued the Smart Driver program, unenrolled all customers, and ended relationships with data companies LexisNexis and Verisk. The commission imposed a five-year ban on GM and OnStar disclosing certain data to consumer reporting agencies.
For 20 years, the company must also get consent from consumers prior to collecting, using, or sharing connected vehicle data, create a way for people to request a copy of their data and get it deleted and allow consumers to opt out or disable data collection.
Cohen urged Congress to pass strong data privacy laws applying to all car companies.
"It's too easy for companies to bury their data collection and sharing practices in long terms of service that no one actually reads," Cohen asserted. "All carmakers should be forced to get people's explicit consent before engaging in invasive data-sharing practices like these."
You can find out what data your car is set up to collect at VehiclePrivacyReport.com. It is also possible to request a report from Lexis Nexis and Verisk to see what information they have about you.
