Vehicles Emerge As Biggest Underground Privacy Threat

Forget TikTok and its threats to our security, privacy and, possibly, sunshine and rainbows. One of the biggest, most intrusive, most commonly used spy tools on the market today remains…your car.

As more press reports uncover, automakers have been collecting huge amounts of very precise data on drivers and reselling it to any number of third parties, including car insurance providers.

And insurance providers have been using the data to hike premiums. As the New York Times' Kashmir Hill wrote, General Motors enrolled many drivers in the data collection scheme through its online navigation systems, OnStar. The consent drivers gave was buried in the terms of use agreement (which most people never read and, if they do, mostly can't understand):

…this screen about enrolling in notifications and Smart Driver doesn't say anything about risk-profiling or insurance companies. It doesn't even hint at the possibility that anyone but G.M. and the driver gets the data collected about how and where the vehicle is operated, which it says will be used to “improve your ownership experience” and help with “driving improvement.”

“What you showed me does not at all disclose clearly how G.M. or OnStar benefits from the use and sale of your info,” said Jen King, an information privacy expert at Stanford University. “Including it during the purchase process appears to be a conscious decision to get high conversion rates.”

It's not a bug Or a feature; it's a business model. On that a 2023 Mozilla Foundation report showed is standard practice among the 25 car makers it reviewed. And what Mozilla's researchers found was horrifying:

It's bad enough for the behemoth corporations that own the car brands to have all that personal information in their possession, to use for their own research, marketing, or the ultra-vague “business purposes.” But then, most (84%) of the car brands we researched say they can share your personal data — with service providers, data brokers, and other businesses we know little or nothing about. Worse, nineteen (76%) say they can sell your personal data.

A surprising number (56%) also say they can share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a “request.” Not a high bar court order, but something as easy as an “informal request.” Yikes — that's a very low bar!

There's far, far more in the report, which you can read, paywall-free, here.

I look forward to the congressional investigation into all this data collection, the presidential promise to protect individual privacy, and perhaps even state-level action to stop the spying.

But I won't hold my breath waiting for any of this to happen. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.