Cars are spying on us. And I don’t mean Chinese cars. Modern vehicles are full of technology that allows automakers and other companies to study our driving habits and facial expressions, and the data is being used to raise our insurance premiums.
There has been a lot of discussion over data collection the past few weeks. Lawmakers are telling us that Chinese cars are being sent overseas to gather important information about… the military? I don’t know. Meanwhile, vehicles right in the United States are gathering plenty of data — and sometimes it’s not even disclosed to us.
The threat of invasion of privacy is not in the far-off future (like car companies using cameras and sensors to detect whether we’re drunk in 2027). It’s happening right now.
Automakers sell data to insurance companies, but you can try to stop it
The BBC recently investigated the sheer amount of data that cars are actually gathering from U.S. drivers. They claimed that “if your car is hooked up to the internet,” you’re being spied on.
Right now, car companies have the right to collect your personal data, including your name, age, race, weight, finances, and sometimes it gets even more invasive. Kia can even collect data about your general health, including your “sex life.” When the BBC asked Kia to clarify, it was told that they had never actually collected it. But their privacy policy currently says that it can, along with other sensitive data.
Even worse, car companies are selling this data. General Motors, Honda, and Hyundai have been accused of selling driver data to private companies. It’s expected that up to 19 automakers are doing this. “They’re taking all the information they collect on you, which is a lot, and using it to make inferences about who you are, how intelligent you are, what your psychological profile is, what your political beliefs are,” Jen Caltrider, a privacy analyst who led Mozilla’s car research, told the BBC. “That’s the stuff people don’t necessarily think about.”
Consumer Reports noted that some automakers ask your permission, but you are often agreeing to share deets without knowing so. When you first turn on an infotainment system in a new car, you are shown a series of consent forms including some about privacy. Many people just accept them instead of reading through, wanting access to the programs within. But these very programs are making it even worse. One example Consumer Reports found was Mitsubishi’s roadside assistance app, Road Assist+, being partnered with LexisNexis. It takes that data (hard braking, nighttime driving, speeding) and sells it to insurance companies.
“Data about how and where you drive your car is very personal and sensitive, and companies should only be collecting and sharing that data when it’s necessary for a service a consumer has requested,” said Justin Brookman, CR’s director of technology policy. “Burying something in a legal agreement or where they’re not likely to notice isn’t real consent, and automakers should knock it off.”
Even if you’re not really all that scared of the government having your driving history (I’m not, to be honest), there are actually real-world consequences. A man recently told The New York Times that General Motors had sent 130 pages of his driving history to a data broker, LexisNexis, which led to his insurance spiking by 21%. And this isn’t a one-time thing. Automakers often have deals with data brokers who then sell the data to insurance companies. And it’s all legal if it’s written out in a privacy policy somewhere.
The United States currently has no national-level privacy law. The protections are state-by-state. And the country may have another loophole for collecting data once the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) comes up with a way to collect data that it hopes will stop drunk drivers from getting on the road. Right now, they are looking into various cameras that look at your eyes and facial expressions as well as sensors that detect your sweat and other indicators. Some believe this is just a guise for collecting more data.
Consumer Federation of America’s research and advocacy advocate Michael DeLong said: “Insurance companies have been collecting vast amounts of consumer data, especially on consumer driving data, and using it to try and charge people higher premiums, deny coverage or slice and dice consumers into various categories.
For now, there is not much you can do to completely stop this. However, you can choose not to enroll in insurance telematics programs, opt out of having your data sold or shared, and even demand that companies delete the data they were given from an automaker. You can adjust privacy settings in your vehicle as well to limit the data shared, including on your car’s infotainment system.
The problem may be getting worse, but at least we’re safe from China I guess?
