You accelerated multiple times on your way to Yosemite for the weekend. You braked when driving to a doctor appointment. If your car has internet capabilities, GPS tracking or OnStar, your car knows your driving history.
And now we know: your car insurance carrier might know it, too.
In a recent New York Times article, Kashmir Hill reported how everyday moments in your car like these create a data footprint of your driving habits and routine that is, in some cases, being sold to insurance companies. Collection often happens through so-called “safe driving” programs pre-installed in your vehicle through an internet-connected service on your car or a connected car app. Real-time location tracking often starts when you download an app on your phone or tap “agree” on the dash screen before you drive your car away from the dealership lot.
Technological advancements in cars have come a long way since General Motors launched OnStar in 1996. From the influx of mobile data facilitating in-car navigation, to the rise of telematics in the 2010s, cars today are more internet-connected than ever. This enables, for example, delivery of emergency warnings, notice of when you need an oil change, and software updates. Recent research predicts that by 2030, more than 95% of new passenger cars will contain some form of internet-connected service and surveillance.
Car manufacturers including General Motors, Kia, Subaru, and Mitsubishi have some form of services or apps that collect, maintain, and distribute your connected car data to insurance companies. Insurance companies spend thousands of dollars purchasing your car data to factor in these “select insights” about your driving behavior. Those insights are then factored into your “risk score,” which can potentially spike your insurance premiums.
As Hill reported, the OnStar Smart Driver program is one example of an internet-connected service that collects driver data and sends it to car manufacturers. They then sell this digital driving profile to third-party data brokers, like Lexis-Nexus or Verisk. From there, data brokers generally sell information to anyone with the money to buy it. After Hill’s report, GM announced it would stop sharing data with these brokers.
The manufacturers and car dealerships subvert consumers’ authentic choice to participate in collecting and sharing of their driving data. This is where consumers should be extremely wary, and where we need stronger data privacy laws. As reported by Hill, a salesperson at the dealership may enroll you without your even realizing it, in their pursuit of an enrollment bonus. All of this is further muddied by a car manufacturers’ lack of clear, detailed, and transparent “terms and conditions” disclosure forms. These are often too long to read and filled with technical legal jargon—especially when all you want is to drive your new car home. Even for unusual consumers who take the time to read the privacy disclosures, as noted in Hill’s article by researcher Jen Caltrider at the Mozilla Foundation, drivers “have little idea about what they are consenting to when it comes to data collection.”
Better Solutions
This whole process puts people in a rough situation. We are unknowingly surveilled to generate a digital footprint that companies later monetize, including details about many parts of daily life, from how we eat, to how long we spend on social media. And now, the way we drive and locations we visit with our car.
That’s why EFF supports comprehensive consumer data privacy legislation with strong data minimization rules and requirements for clear, opt-in consent.
If there were clear data minimization guardrails in place, it would curb overzealous processing of our automotive data. General Motors would only have authority to collect, maintain, use, and disclose our data to provide a service that we asked for. For example, through the OnStar program, drivers may want to provide their GPS location data to assist rescue efforts, or to automatically call 911 if they’ve been in an accident. Any car data beyond what is needed to provide services people asked for should not be collected. And it certainly shouldn’t be sold to data brokers—who then sell it to your car insurance carriers.
Hill’s article shines a light on another part of daily life that is penetrated by technology advancements that have no clear privacy guardrails. Consumers do not actually know how companies are processing their data – much less actually exercise control over this processing.
That’s why we need opt-in consent rules: companies must be forbidden from processing our data, unless they first obtain our genuine opt-in consent. This consent must be informed and specific, meaning companies cannot hide the request in legal jargon buried under pages of fine print. Moreover, this consent cannot be the product of deceptively designed user interfaces (sometimes called “dark patterns”) that impair autonomy and choice. Further, this consent must be voluntary, meaning among other things it cannot be coerced with pay-for-privacy schemes. Finally, the default must be no data processing until the driver gives permission (“opt-in consent”), as opposed to processing until the driver objects (“opt-out consent”).
But today, consumers do not control, or often even know, to whom car manufacturers are selling their data. Is it car insurers, law enforcement agencies, advertisers?
Finally, if you want to figure out what your car knows about you, and opt out of sharing when you can, check out our instructions here.
