GM faces ban on selling driver data that can be used to raise insurance rates
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
To take this back to the story about TikTok: this is another example where the correct fix--comprehensive data stewardship regulation--would be the right thing to do, but what we get is a weaksauce negotiated option as a sop to industry lobbyists.
Americans can be relied to do the right thing, once every other avenue is exhausted.
Americans can be relied to do the right thing, once every other avenue is exhausted.
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Why only five years? Why not forever, and apply that to all other companies as well?
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'forever' is a problem with contracts/agreements. As said above, strong privacy and data security laws are needed. So of course it's not what we'll get.
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Another spineless fucking settlement with no penalty. Great work, you (FTC) fucking losers.
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I'm reacting viscerally to the involvement of LexisNexis before I got through the whole article.
LexisNexis is a voracious data hog and should be constrained. I was ordering take out from a local Thai restaurant using their webpage a couple weeks ago, and one of my privacy plugins warned me that it blocked a LexisNexis endpoint in the page. They're building in tracking into website and e-commerce packages used by mom and pop stores.
Maybe that's worthy of it's own article, honestly.
LexisNexis is a voracious data hog and should be constrained. I was ordering take out from a local Thai restaurant using their webpage a couple weeks ago, and one of my privacy plugins warned me that it blocked a LexisNexis endpoint in the page. They're building in tracking into website and e-commerce packages used by mom and pop stores.
Maybe that's worthy of it's own article, honestly.
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The FTC can't write laws, they can only create regulations - and under the current Congress and Supreme Court they have trouble doing that. Don't blame the horse with hobbles on, blame the person who put the hobbles there.
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Has anyone ever been notified that their insurance rates are being LOWERED because of data from one of those in-car tracking devices?
My assumption is that such devices are only used to identify people at greater risk of filing claims, people at lower risk are just part of the profit margin and should be left alone at their current rates.
My assumption is that such devices are only used to identify people at greater risk of filing claims, people at lower risk are just part of the profit margin and should be left alone at their current rates.
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That's like saying "don't hate the player, hate the game", which is one of the most annoying cop outs.
I'm tired of excuses. I want corporations and corporate executives to see real penalties that actually hurt them and make them stop being shitheads.
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Honestly I am waiting for rates to go up because "you drive an older vehicle and we can't track your driving behavior".
Or, for all I know, that is why my rates have been going up over the years. Despite a clean driving records since I started driving, no claims, and vehicles that continue getting older.
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If you think you have any sort of privacy in this day of age your sadly mistaken. It's ridiculous how there is no regulations on managing data brokers and how they are used and all your data is being abused or used against you.
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So many things to be snarky about in this article!
"GM and OnStar "will be banned for five years from disclosing consumers' sensitive geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies," the FTC said."
Right, because the behavior is wrong today but it will be perfectly okay in five years.
"The proposed settlement was approved in a closed meeting by the FTC's three Democrats, with the two Republicans recorded as absent."
Gotta love those hard-working FTC Republicans, always looking out for the little guy.
"In September, we consolidated many of our US privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy."
Ah, yes, GM -- raising the bar on privacy after they got caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing to begin with. That's absolutely stand-up work you're doing there, boys!
"GM and OnStar "will be banned for five years from disclosing consumers' sensitive geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies," the FTC said."
Right, because the behavior is wrong today but it will be perfectly okay in five years.
"The proposed settlement was approved in a closed meeting by the FTC's three Democrats, with the two Republicans recorded as absent."
Gotta love those hard-working FTC Republicans, always looking out for the little guy.
"In September, we consolidated many of our US privacy statements into a single, simpler statement as part of our broader work to keep raising the bar on privacy."
Ah, yes, GM -- raising the bar on privacy after they got caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing to begin with. That's absolutely stand-up work you're doing there, boys!
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What data are they using? Because I was under the impression it was accidents (that you were at fault for) that raised rates, not just 'driving' regularly without an accident happening. If I have to brake hard, that's AVOIDING an accident. If I swerve, that's AVOIDING an accident. How and why would that data impact me negatively?
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I did that once out of curiosity for whatever the initial data gathering period was for my car insurance. It's really pretty useless overall from me. The only time I really drove was for work (~20 miles there and back, all highway, during normal rush hour traffic) and my discount wound up being like 3-5%, so, like $50/year. With the device in my car I made sure to never go more than 5mph over the speed limit. Maybe even just that was the reason it was such a paltry discount. I assume that the only meaningful discount available will be for those who basically don't drive or drive very little in non-rush hour traffic. I returned the device after that and never thought about it again.
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They want any/all data they can get.
Its the same problem as the OBD trackers some insurance push for - and they can't take things into account like why you did something.
They can look at how fast people drive (e.g. if you're dong 80 in a state with max 70 speed limits, you are higher risk breaking laws and more likely to do something dangerous.
They look at how hard you accelerate/brake, and assume "many people who brake/swerve/accelerate hard are aggressive or not paying attention, so anyone who does this is higher risk"
They also look at number of trips - Hybrids had issues for quite some time where trackers would count every "engine start" as a new trip so people would be flagged for "high risk" doing 100 short trips when they were really just going slow in traffic with the Hybrid transitioning frequently between battery and engine operation on a regular commute.
When our insurance was trying to push a tracker I was reading up...many people suggested running a light turned red on higher speed roads because "its better than stopping and getting dinged for hard braking as long as you don't crash insurance won't know". That was a terrifying suggestion to find in a forum!
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We got a discount because they concluded that our location had no cell service on the carrier they used, and therefore they had no way to monitor...so they gave us 50% of the possible discount because we could argue that we were being penalized for their inability to offer the promised discount program.
But yeah I expect they would find issue with everything.
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My insurance went down despite that my new car is a bit more expensive than the previous one. Apparently all those new fancy safety features like automatic breaking reduce the risks of an accident and they lowered the rate. Cheers!
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If you are driving defensively, and keeping safe distances, theoretically, you'll not have to break hard.
And it's not about you specifically, but they can analyze the data, and show, as a group, people who break hard at least every xxxx miles, are more likely to be involved in a wreck. Doesn't matter if its your fault or not, its a wreck, and could cost them money.
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Love how they’re banned from disclosing and not collecting for five years if I read that correctly. Meaning in five years they’ll just share the accumulated data.
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Cars are more expensive now than they used to be, and also cost more to repair. In general, auto insurance will go up with the price of cars. Even if your car isn't new, you may run into someone driving a new car, and your insurance company ends up repairing all the expensive new tech in their car.
But often companies will just raise rates on old customers (or at least not compete for them) because they hope they will be too lazy to shop around. Get a few competing quotes if your premium has gone up more than inflation.
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I dunno how well it'll help, but using Firefox with Cookiebro, NoScript and uBlock drastically cuts down on what websites can track. Cookiebro is great at actually blocking the cookies you DON'T want. NoScript blocks any scripts from unauthorized web sites from even running. And uBlock can block the displays of ads pretty much forever per site.
Yeah, it's a lot of juggling at first, and a bit of a learning curve, but once you build up a library of trusted sites, it's a lot more privacy than you'll get with a bare-bones browser and default settings. For the lack of ads and shit alone, it's well worth the time and effort it takes to learn their quirks.
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Honestly probably because that action would have to come from Congress in the form of a law. Punishing a company probably falls under the purview of the FTC (well, hopefully even in the wake of Chevron.)
Clear out banning companies and basically making up a law on the spot? Does not fall under their purview.
Maybe one day we'll wake up and actually elect good legislators. But I very much doubt it.
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Yeah, the famous Rule Against Perpetuities. They should have said 50 years instead of five. That would have avoided the infinite duration issue.
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Any time the agenda has an item for "protect the little people from the wolves" it's a good guess that most of the modern Republican party will duck out. Perhaps they later sent some thoughts and prayers to make up for it.
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It was at least the number of trips, time and date of start and end of each trip, distance driven, amount of speeding, hard braking, and sharp accelerations.
If you brake hard, it's reported. The report doesn't say that you had to brake hard to avoid an unsafe motorist, only that you are a person who braked hard. It doesn't say you had to accelerate sharply to safely merge onto a highway, only that you are a person who accelerated sharply. These metrics are reported because the insurance company thinks they are indicators of less safe driving.
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The FTC can't do that, this is probably the best they could do.
Congress could do that of course, if they weren't completely dysfunctional and
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Where can I sign up for the class action suit? I was impacted and have the receipts.
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This comment is just adorable.
Accidents are one kind of (important) data.
Insurance companies can underwrite using almost any data they can collect. THat said, there are prohibitions, and they can vary from state to state.
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A government controlled by wealthy corporations is a consequence of voting for corporate sponsored politicians.
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The insurance for my 39 year old MR2 is ludicrously cheap through a specialist insurer, despite the car steadily appreciating.
I was told by the rep that it's because cars like mine are cherished, and not used for e.g. shopping trips.
Apparently low-speed incidents are the majority of insurance claims.
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"I tried ordering Krispy Kreme online and my health insurance went up"
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