The decision followed a New York Times report this month that G.M. had, for years, been sharing data about drivers’ mileage, braking, acceleration and speed with the insurance industry. The drivers were enrolled — some unknowingly, they said — in OnStar Smart Driver, a feature in G.M.’s internet-connected cars that collected data about how the car had been driven and promised feedback and digital badges for good driving.
If the article link contains a paywall, you can consider reading this alternative article instead: ‘GM Stops Sharing Driver Data With Brokers Amid Backlash’ on Ars Technica.
Not sharing the driving behavior… for now. Any faucet that can be turned off can be turned on again.
They’re only stopping because they got caught. Once the masses move on to the next Pitch Fork event, they’ll start it back up again.
Yup. I’ll trust them when they let us turn it off and on.
They’re just saying this because they got caught. They might not even actually stop doing it. And even if they do, they’ll just wait until the majority has forgotten about this and quietly start doing it again…
Oh they’ll stop… Til everyone forgets.
And you know the cars aren’t going to stop generating the data either for when they decide they want it.
Would be way cooler if they just stopped collecting it.
I think fixing this problem will require making the collection illegal, with meaningful enforcement.
Our legislators don’t want that though. In fact they’re currently trying to force the sale of US TikTok to a US company likely so they can collect even more data on us.
Yep, we just gotta vote in people who will legislate it. Which means normal people who don’t take
bribesdonations from corporations will need to run for office and beat those who do.So basically we’re doomed. We either need a modern day Teddy Roosevelt or we need to start building guillotines.
Everybody who starts building guillotines gets arrested rather quickly to not disturb the current regime.
It was rather disingenuous in the US to make a system that can only sustain two parties while making the two parties exactly the same economically, while keeping the plebs busy fighting over social differences promoted by the parties (like abortion rights etc). This way there is a too large gap in the population for any kind of significant joined uprising.
Would be way cooler if they couldn’t collect it.
Cars shouldn’t have Internet connectivity and telemetry collection at all. I don’t care what “quality of life” improvements they bring, if they use it to spy on and profit off their customers after paying for the vehicle then it should be banned. I know most people don’t give a shit about their privacy but when it starts affecting their wallet, they will.
I don’t care what “quality of life” improvements they bring,
None.
There’s plenty; they’re just not for the end user.
What, don’t you enjoy the incredible feature of your car being a rolling computer that constantly gets over the air software updates? Don’t you want to experience the joy of being stuck waiting for a forced Windows update, but instead of your computer it’s your car? Why would anybody not want this incredible and so clearly beneficial experience?!?
Cut the power to the OnStar module and cut the wire to the cell antenna. Cars do not need to connect to the Internet… Ever
IDK, the ability to remote activate climate control, start/stop charging and control charge power to match my solar power are all quite good reasons for me to have my car connected.
We should be able to have nice things without surveillance. We shouldn’t refrain from these things, we should legislate so they’re not allowed to collect data and share it without explicit consent.
Agreed. Also it reduces costs significantly if issues can be remotely inspected and fixed. Software updates regularly get sent to new vehicles that would have cost a lot of time and money to do at a dealership.
Yes, they shouldn’t be sharing your data. Yes you should be getting compensated if you opt into data sharing.
No software updates needed if there is no software to begin with…
You can’t have things like airbags, stability control, efficient use of fuel/energy without software.
We haven’t had software-less cars for decades. As someone that works on older vehicles you don’t want to go back to that era.
How far away do you need to start your car? Wouldn’t a regular remote start on a key fob work for most situations? Unless you’re taking the bus to your car.
I start the AC from my office which is probably 2-300m from my car with a large building between. That’s far outside the range of a key FOB, but it’s nice and cold in the summer (or warm on the winter) when I get to it.
You probably bitch and complain about climate change while walking to your car that has been running for 20 minutes too.
In what world does walking 2-300m take 20min? What a ridiculous hyperbole…
If it’s cold outside it usualky takes at least 10 minutes to be warm enough to keep the windshield clear, so not all of it will be walking.
Defrost will have the windshield clear of ice in about 3min on mine.
“GM decides to become a data broker”
FTFYSuure they do. Maybe temporarily, but that won’t last even if it is true.
I’m going to be driving my cars from 2016 and 2014 forever, aren’t I?
I’d like a resource that lists each model of car and the last year they were made without data connections, or ones that depended on subscriptions that you can just decline or easily disable. I have a car from 2013 but am wondering if I should upgrade it to a latest good model before people start preferring those and the used price goes up even more.
Nah, there’s also cars like mine from 2005. Plenty of em to go around.
To be fair I love my 2014 GTI and will probably drive it forever even if I get another car because it’s just so damn fun.
we’re removing car play for privacy reasons!
It doesn’t quit collecting and storing it
Well that’s a funny way to spell “make sure not to buy anything GM or OnStar” but I guess it’s still legible.
“for now”
This might be a stupid question, but this wouldn’t have anything to do with a lot of onstar units not being able to connect to 4g now that 3g is being phased out, now would it?
There is nothing holding them back to change their decision tomorrow or next week. there are no consumer rights or even citizen rights to their own data like the EU developed in the last 10 years. There is no leash on companies to pause or continue this behavior anytime the feel like it.
In a free market the leash is consumer choice. Now show me the dumb appliance/no network of things options.
Hard to do when there are no alternatives, because everyone in the market is selling the data.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
General Motors said Friday that it had stopped sharing details about how people drove its cars with two data brokers that created risk profiles for the insurance industry.
had, for years, been sharing data about drivers’ mileage, braking, acceleration and speed with the insurance industry.
Since Wednesday, “OnStar Smart Driver customer data is no longer being shared with LexisNexis or Verisk,” a G.M.
Romeo Chicco, a Florida man whose insurance rates nearly doubled after his Cadillac collected his driving data, filed a complaint seeking class-action status against G.M., OnStar and LexisNexis this month.
An internal document, reviewed by The Times, showed that as of 2022, more than eight million vehicles were included in Smart Driver.
An employee familiar with the program said the company’s annual revenue from Smart Driver was in the low millions of dollars.
The original article contains 247 words, the summary contains 136 words. Saved 45%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
