Temeika Clay couldn’t understand why her car insurance premium shot up 80 percent. When Temeika did some digging and obtained the LexisNexis credit report for her Chevy Camaro which revealed GM was collecting data about her driving tendencies and making that information available to insurance companies for a profit. “Never did I imagine my car would be spying on me and sending information about my driving habits. That’s just unbelievable,” Clay told media.
Clay’s LexisNexis documents revealed her OnStar system tracked her acceleration, high speed, and hard brake events. The documents revealed GM provided the information to data brokers, who then passed it along to insurance companies. A GM spokesperson told a media source that Smart Driver data is no longer being shared with LexisNexis or one other data analytics company. “There are a lot of ways cars collect our data now, and it’s nuts. We don’t even think about it,” said Jen Caltrider, director of the Privacy Not Included project at Mozilla. “Cars are an absolute privacy nightmare and it kind of snuck up on all of us.”
The team at Mozilla reviewed 25 car brands in 2023 and discovered every one was collecting “more personal data than necessary and was using that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you. The Mozilla team listed numerous categories of data car makers are collecting about owners of their cars including mobile device locations, financial account numbers, billing information, IP address, physical characteristics, and even information about your sexual orientation and sexual activity.
“The amount of data the car companies said they collect really had our eyes popping,” Caltrider reported. “When we started looking into it, we realized cars collect way more data than they need to collect to get you from point A to point B safely.” The research showed over 80 percent of the car brands researched “share or sell your data.” The car makers can also collect voice recordings, route history, biometric information, vehicle speed, use of the accelerator, and information about braking habits.
“Asking consumers to try and find and read the privacy documentation, I can tell you from experience as a privacy researcher, it was nearly impossible,” Caltrider said. “Knowing when your car is transmitting data and having a way to shut that down could void your car’s warranty, so there aren’t a lot of great options for consumers. That’s why I think we’re way past time for a strong consumer federal privacy law.”
With new advances in vehicle technology and services, automakers have been vacuuming up huge amounts of data on drivers, passengers, and even individuals outside the vehicle. Automakers face few, if any, limitations on the collection, use, and disclosure of this data. Consumers are often left in the dark. Iskander Sanchez-Role, director of Privacy Innovation at Norton, said the danger associated with this kind of data collection includes data misuse and breaches.
“The collection and transmission of sensitive driving data raises the risk of a data breach. If hackers gain unauthorized access to this information, they leverage this personal information to perform personalized phishing attacks that could lead to identity theft or other privacy violations in the future,” Sanchez-Rola said. Sanchez-Rola recommends car owners use Vehicle Privacy Report to learn more about the information their car maker is collecting. Cyberbit CEO Caleb Barlow said it is vital for car owners to “scrub” and restore their vehicles to a factory setting before selling or trading them in. “Remember, your car knows as much about you as your phone does. When you go to sell, you’ve got to wipe all your data off that car,” Barlow said.
Since this information is available for a price it’s realistic to believe an insurance adjustor could pay the fee and learn about anyone involved in litigation against them. Once they have the information, what would they do with that and who would they share that with. This was how investigators learned how fast Tiger Woods was driving when he crashed his SUV in 2023 after a gold tournament in Southern California. The data was also able to report on what lane he was in, how hard he was accelerating and braking and other information that should have been private. In 2024 there are too many ways we give up our right to privacy. Should how you driver, where you go, your conversations and who your friends are be fair game? We think not!
We represent people who are injured because of the careless and reckless acts of others. At the end of the day your case can only be settled one time and you need to know all of the facts beforehand. The reason that insurance companies have paid our clients in excess of $130,000,000.00 is that we get the facts and are not intimidated at the prospect of going to trial when insurance companies fail to offer full compensation. We help with serious injuries that require serious representation. We are the Law Offices of Guenard & Bozarth, LLP. Our attorneys have more than 60 years of experience specializing in only representing injured people. Call GB Legal 24/7/365 at 888-809-1075 or visit www.gblegal.com We would be honored to represent you!
