In 2022, Kenn Dahl the car insurance rose 21%. He had not had any incident with his Chevrolet Bolt, so he asked his insurance agent and he gave him a advice: look at your lexisnexis report.
This company based in New York is a gigantic data broker that has a division that is responsible for Collect information about drivers and then supplies it to insurance companies. And that is where Mr. Dahl decided to ask for his report from the company, who was obliged to give it due to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Your car is cool
When he received it, Mr. Dahl was amazed. That 258 -page report had more than 130 pages dedicated to each moment in which he or his wife had driven the car in the previous six months. Included details of 640 journeys with their start and end hours, the distance conducted or Even accelerons and brakes. The only thing that did not reveal was the specific places from and where it had gone.
Kia Connect is a service that informs the driver of his “driver score” to (theoretically) offer custom automobile insurance. The system does not stop collecting data on your driving.
As explained in The New York Times, more and more manufacturers make use of all kinds of sensors and systems that collect information about drivers, and do so without their express knowledge and, of course, without their consent. And modern cars can even have systems that “describe” the driving of who takes them, something that allows manufacturers to collect that data … and sell them.
There are more users who have noticed this type of Massive collection of data in your cars. In those of General Motors, the Smart Diver onstar system is used that users can deactivate, as several drivers who commented on the situation in Reddit or in a forum dedicated to the “Chevy” Bolt.
Other manufacturers make use of this type of systems and activate them by default, such as the KIA Connect system of the KIA aimed at obtaining a “score” that helps your car insurance to adjust to your way of driving and reward the most reliable drivers according to the data collected.
In Peugeot support forums there is even talk of the “private mode” of driving that when activated “prevents data and/or the vehicle position.” But as they also point out in that information, if one deactivates it, it stops accessing functions such as connected navigation, remote control or Mirror Screen function.
According to a 2023 study of the Mozilla Foundation, 88% of the brands analyzed by them inferred additional data from the information they collected. And among those inferred data, something disturbing: they could confirm a profile of personal beliefs and even sexual activity. Not only that: in this study 19 of the companies analyzed (76%) They sold those personal data to other companies.
The good thing about the Tesla is that they have cameras. The bad, too
The suspicions that can emerge in this type of data collection can go even further, especially if we remember What happened to the Tesla. Between 2019 and 2022 groups of Employees of Tesla privately shared videos and images taken with the cameras of customer cars.
In some of those videos, Tesla customers had been captured in pregnant situations. For example, an ex -employed from the company could see the video of a completely naked man approaching one of those cars. In others, even accidents such as a Tesla who ran over a bike child who was fired. That video, said one of the ex-employees in the Reuters report, spread through those internal networks “such as gunpowder.”
The Tesla are just another example of that massive data collection. According to The Guardian, the sensors and cameras of the car get location data – although Tesla does not store them unless they are from an accident – habits and type of driving (speeds, brakes, accelerons), and other data.
For example, diagnostic information and car use and data related to infotainment systems such as navigation history or voice commands used. It is possible to disable the function that transfers part of that information to the Tesla servers, but in doing so we can also lose some functions of the vehicle.
The European Data Protection Committee published in 2021 its guidelines on the processing of personal data in this environment, and according to said regulations manufacturers must minimize data collection and prioritize their local treatment. In addition, control tools that allow you to exercise access, rectification and suppression rights are urged.
The requirements are there, but at the moment its compliance seems as little erratic. In the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) they recently provided tips when consulting what data your car has and how to prevent them from being shared, but of course the situation could be aggravated, especially considering that the renewal of the mobile park causes that more and more users logically have cars with all these options … and voracity when it comes to collecting data.
Image | Jonas Leupe
