GM, LexisNexis Sued For (Nontransparent) Sale Of Driver Behavior Data To Insurers
Last week the New York Times published a story confirming what everybody assumed was already happening. Automakers collect reams of personal behavior, phone, and other data (without making it clear to consumers) then sell it to a long list of companies. Including insurance companies, who are now jacking up insurance rates if they see behavior in the dataset they don't like.
The absolute bare minimum you could could expect from the auto industry here is that they're doing this in a way that's clear to car owners. But of course they aren't; they're burying consent" deep in the mire of some hundred-page end user agreement nobody reads, usually not related to the car purchase itself but the apps consumers now use to manage roadside assistance and other programs.
Unsurprisingly, one of the folks who was being tracked in this way has now filed suit (see: complaint) against both General Motors and Lexis Nexis, which the insurance industry uses to digest driver data and then create driver behavior reports used to impact insurance rates. And again, it's the failure to be transparent with consumers that got the companies into trouble:
What no one can tell me is how I enrolled in it," Mr. Chicco told The Times in an interview this month. You can tell me how many times I hard-accelerated on Jan. 30 between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., but you can't tell me how I enrolled in this?"
A report last month by Mozilla highlighted how the auto industry was the absolute worst industry the organization tracks on privacy practices, routinely over-collecting and failing to adequately protect or encrypt broad swaths of data. Not just data from the vehicle; but troves of data collected from your phone every time you sync it with your car's infotainment and navigation systems.
It's another giant mess made possible, in part, by a corrupt Congress' absolute refusal to pass a meaningful privacy law for the internet era, despite a steady parade of stories just like this one. Yes, automakers should be transparent, but consumers should also be empowered to opt out of punitive surveillance and data collection without losing features or seeing entirely new, annoying restrictions.