9mo ago

People Are Slowly Realizing Their Auto Insurance Rates Are Skyrocketing Because Their Car Is Covertly Spying On Them

www.techdirt.com People Are Slowly Realizing Their Auto Insurance Rates Are Skyrocketing Because Their Car Is Covertly Spying On Them

Last month the New York Times’ Kashmir Hill published a major story on how GM collects driver behavior data then sells access (through LexisNexis) to insurance companies, which will then jack…

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9mo ago

GM collects driver behavior data then sells access to insurance companies

www.techdirt.com /2024/04/26/people-are-slowly-realizing-their-auto-insurance-rates-are-skyrocketing-because-their-car-is-covertly-spying-on-them/

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Mine tried to get me to plug in a monitoring device into our cars' OBD-II ports after we signed up. I said Hell Naw and returned them shits to the sender. They said my rates would go up if I didn't use it and they didn't really change.
Next car I get will have to be neutered of such spyware, since they're apparently building it all in now. Current car just had a box I unplugged to disable the 3G cellular network connectivity and the car works just fine without it.
- We lowkey need a database of how to airgap cars. Spying hardware started being common long enough ago that people aren't really going to be able to avoid it when buying used, unless they have the time and money to maintain a classic car.
  It isn't just your driving either. They also very commonly log location and audio inside the car as well.
  
  Yes!! It frustrates me so much when the proposed answer is "buy an older car", which is not a longterm solution.
  It would be cool to have an iFixit-like score for each model.
  
  Iirc Mozilla tried, but they all were so terrible everybody got an F according to their (IMO pretty fair) standards.
  
  This was a completely different thing - the report was about what data they collect or have the capability to collect, rather than how easy it is to remove the telematics unit and which functions would be impacted by it. The suggested measures against this were pretty basic, no mention was made of actual modifications.
  
  I'd expect in most cars it's as simple as pulling a fuse for the cellular radio. But depending on how the car is designed that might break other features like the infotainment or keyless entry. It's hit or miss how any given car will react to things being unplugged.
  
  They will record it and upload it at your next service.

131 comments