Automakers share
 

Your driving habits with insurance companies.

GM is doing it so you can assume others are also.
How do you feel about your driving habits being monitored and shared?
Could it be such sharing goes beyond your insurance company even possibly affecting your credit rating and borrowing power?
Personal freedoms impingement?
How much other personal information is "monitored" and stored, shared or sold without your knowledge or consent?

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luojkK4_ME0

Re: Automakers share
 

There's more than one reason my daily driver is s 72 Blazer.

Re: Automakers share
 

Ford does it too, at least tracks them. When I start my 2019 f150 it tells me something about location monitoring or something like that. Maybe that's why my insurance renewal went down?

Re: Automakers share
 

.

I read an article yesterday about this...it is gaining attention. The general consensus seems to be that the consumer is able to disable this tracking, at least in the case of GM as it is part of their "onstar" program or whatever.

There is evidence that the automakers are sharing/selling this data to insurance companies and that those companies have reacted by raising rates. They are certainly not interested in lowering rates though and I am convinced that if they received favorable data for some client, that data would get lost or ignored.

A more concerning data point in my opinion is the cataloging, storing and selling of license plate location data. In this country we have a growing license plate tracking problem and it is being driven by Laws Enforcement. Law Enforcement agencies contract with private business to obtain real time license plate data both from stationary license plate readers and mobile license plate readers attached to their patrol vehicles. This network of data collection stations funnel the data to central repositories where the data is processed in real time to alert various Law Enforcement agencies when a TARGET plate has been located. That TARGET might be a stolen vehicle, a vehicle with expired registration, a vehicle with no insurance or simply a vehicle of interest to Law Enforcement.

This data repository is owned/administered by the private company, not the police. The police pay to access it, thus driving the demand for more and more data on license plate locations. This data, collected as it is and consolidated represents, in my opinion, a massive privacy concern for the citizenship. The founders of our Constitution couldn't have possible foreseen the level of automated data harvesting and consolidation that we are capable of today and so didn't write protections into the Amendments. That is unfortunate indeed.

-klb

Re: Automakers share
 

No, it doesn't.
There are multiple reasons why I won't own a onstar equiped vehicle.

Re: Automakers share
 

With the web we've sold ourselves out to not just big business, but anyone who cares to locate where you live. All one needs is a name, perhaps a city, and they're led right up to your front door. Other than homeless exemptions perhaps, only the wealthy are protected in that instance, to extent, if they have multiple properties.

Once you open a web address, those who want to know begin your profile and capture/load with data. 1984 is an amazing prediction. Even the year is awfully close too, if not dead-on. "ARPANET and the Defense Data Network officially changed to the TCP/IP standard on January 1, 1983, hence the birth of the Internet."

Re: Automakers share
 

The cellular/OnStar system in my 2019 Suburban shares a fuse with the air bags. How underhanded is that? I called and opted out of OnStar etc. a while ago and no longer have an illuminated indicator light (fwiw). I'd rather yank the necessary wires but haven't found a good tutorial to do so. The 5th gen 4Runner crowd is all over this stuff and have tutorials on disabling on board comms while preserving radio and GPS signals.

Re: Automakers share
 

Tracking is so common and easy now days. My wife has an app on her phone that allows her to see where anyone in her phone's address book is, whether they are sitting still or moving and how fast they are moving, as long as that person has location or find me enabled. She keeps up with the daughter when she's traveling like in bad weather or through Atlanta! I have cautioned her about using it. And NO, I do not have tracking enabled on my phone, ever. I'm not doing anything wrong but I don't want anyone keeping up with where I am either.
People have willingly given up their right to privacy all in the name of convenience and novelty and those younger ones being born into this age of electronic wizardry know no other way. Life was so much simpler and safer before the techno age we live in now.

Re: Automakers share
 

As for a cell phone, if one doesn't want to be tracked, aluminum foil or better yet, an iron box will keep it out of the system. Can't send or receive signals in there. Just take it out when needed.

Re: Automakers share
 

Yes, it's an infringement. Definitely an invasion of your privacy.

Re: Automakers share
 

Tin foil hat for your phone?

Didn't we find you a tin foil beanie just a little while ago? :lol:

All kidding aside, I keep location off for my phone, but go ogle is getting more and more invasive. Trying to get me disclose my location or sign in for nearly every search. I abandoned my g mail account because of their constant heckling. And they will probably read this because their search engine will find it. Very few consumer services are for the good of the consumer. Including the internet...

Re: Automakers share
 

Good thing the onstar in my SS is no longer compatible with the cell service and now obsolete… the insurance company would really love to see some of that information.

Re: Automakers share
 

Wouldn't have been me for any foil accessories.

Re: Automakers share
 

In addition to the cost of new(er) pickups, this tech garbage is a big reason I may never upgrade from my 2012. It will be paid off in a week. One more payment amd it’s officially mine. Only 130k miles on it, and I only put 5k miles on it per year. I’m set for a long time!

Re: Automakers share
 

I'm looking for a pre-computer vehicle, but I can assure everybody, including my insurance company, that my econobox hasn't been involved in any drag racing...lately. :lol:

Re: Automakers share
 

That's right, it was Ol Blue K20, right around here:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...2&postcount=20

I haven't seen anything from Dale in a bit.

Re: Automakers share
 

He was busy at his cabin last I heard. That was near the end of January.

Re: Automakers share
 

Maybe ol bud got snowed in. ;)

Re: Automakers share
 

Onstar can be disabled in any vehicle that it’s in . I disabled mine in my Envoy even though the service had long expired.

Re: Automakers share
 

I've never signed up for the service, but what does it require to actively disable it?

Re: Automakers share
 

It’s in the software he also disconnected the box I had my local shop guy do it . He does a lot of tuning and software upgrades . He managed to revert my 07 Dodge to its original program after Dodge flashed it without my permission . Truck kept throwing a code p1223 for no reason had everything checked . Dodge said it couldn’t be done but he did it no more code.

Mine was an old onstar new ones may be more complicated

Re: Automakers share
 

My local dealer refused to permanently disconnect the cellular/OnStar system in my 2019 Suburban.

Re: Automakers share
 

I think he is in his corner behaving himself.

Re: Automakers share
 

I hope so. ;)

Re: Automakers share
 

Looks like GM is backtracking this now…
https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...s/73057931007/