A NUMBER of car owners have learned that automakers track and sell the data that reveals their driving habits.
As this intrusive issue is coming to light for drivers, it's raised serious privacy concerns among car owners.
As it has recently been brought to a number of drivers' knowledge that car manufacturers are sharing their data, a number of them feel that carmakers didn't get their informed consent.
Additionally, the information gathered and shared by manufacturers can potentially be used to target drivers for advertising and other commercial purposes.
Multiple companies had been receiving detailed data about a driver for months.
Ever since she purchased a new G.M.-manufactured Chevrolet Bolt in December with her husband, they haven't been able to drive with privacy.
Kashmir Hill's husband got 'consumer disclosure files' from the two data brokers that work with the auto insurance industry containing information about them, The New York Time reporter explained.
The files also noted that G.M. was sharing the data with the businesses, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk.
The driver said the report he received featured a layout of over 200 trips the couple had taken in the vehicle.
Their driving habits had been being monitored since January.
The information recorded included the distance they'd drive as well as the start and end times of their trips.
A spokeswoman for G.M. told Hill that the data collection only happens to people who have OnStar activated.
That being said, Hill connected the vehicle to The MyChevrolet app to check and see if their car was connected to a program named Smart Driver and it told her that they weren't enrolled.
When they found out, this month, that they had been being monitored because G.M. shared their data, her husband logged into a browser-based version of his G.M. account page.
The site said that their car was enrolled with OnStar.
G.M. said that the discrepancy between the app and the website was the result of 'a bug' that affected a 'small population' of its customers.
The security issue raised serious privacy concerns among car owners as it keeps track of a driving-related information and even shares it
SOURCE: The New York Times
She emphasized that, though she and her husband were the drivers and owners of the vehicle, they couldn’t get insights into their driving - but insurance companies could.
The LexisNexis report also showed how often the drivers hit their brakes hard and when they hit the gas to accelerate rapidly in the vehicle.
The Verisk report they received had been recording data from their vehicle since mid-December.
It was also a lot more specific about what it shared of the recorded data.
It told the couple they'd driven on 297 trips and even included a detailed summary of their driving habits.
It showed that their new Chevy Bolt had driven exactly 1,890.89 miles.
The report provided an overview of how long they'd spent driving in the car down to the minute.
Verisk recorded over 4,251 minutes of driving time, 170 hard-brake events and 24 rapid accelerations, Hill admitted.
If they'd done any speeding in the car, that would've been reflected in the report as well.
