Mega merge - Onstar is reporting your driving history
03-11-2024, 10:38 AM
#121
LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl’s request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page “consumer disclosure report,” which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.
On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.
According to the report, the trip details had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of the Chevy Bolt. LexisNexis analyzed that driving data to create a risk score “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage,” according to a LexisNexis spokesman, Dean Carney. Eight insurance companies had requested information about Mr. Dahl from LexisNexis over the previous month.
What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.
On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.
According to the report, the trip details had been provided by General Motors — the manufacturer of the Chevy Bolt. LexisNexis analyzed that driving data to create a risk score “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage,” according to a LexisNexis spokesman, Dean Carney. Eight insurance companies had requested information about Mr. Dahl from LexisNexis over the previous month.
OnStar is G.M.’s Internet-connected service for its cars and Smart Driver is a free, gamified feature within G.M.’s connected car apps (all part of OnStar, but branded MyChevrolet, MyBuick, MyGMC and MyCadillac).
Smart Driver can “help you become a better driver,” according to a corporate website, by tracking and rating seatbelt use and driving habits. In a recent promotional campaign, an Instagram influencer used Smart Driver in a competition with her husband to find out who could collect the most digital badges, such as “brake genius” and “limit hero.”
Smart Driver can “help you become a better driver,” according to a corporate website, by tracking and rating seatbelt use and driving habits. In a recent promotional campaign, an Instagram influencer used Smart Driver in a competition with her husband to find out who could collect the most digital badges, such as “brake genius” and “limit hero.”
It is possible that G.M. drivers who insisted they didn’t opt in were unknowingly signed up at the dealership, where salespeople can receive bonuses for successful enrollment of customers in OnStar services, including Smart Driver, according to a company manual.
May not be a popular opinion around here; but this is a thing only government can solve. Otherwise it's a race to the bottom as car companies look for ways to turn you into more profit. You wanna know where companies like Google and Facebook don't screw around with personal data? Europe. Why? Because of rules like GDPR, DMA, and the enforcement and massive fines that sit behind them.
Corporations gonna milk you and invade your privacy unless it's not profitable for them to do so. And to be clear: I work in tech. I have absolutely been called upon to build systems that create this kind of invasion of privacy. I've turned down some pretty lucrative offers from Facebook in particular because there's no getting around they do harm at scale but that's me wanting to live with myself, not a solution to the problem. If we really want this fixed, we have to have appropriate regulation with enough teeth that companies feel the need to follow it.
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Formula52 (03-11-2024)
03-11-2024, 10:40 AM
#122
Le Mans Master
It's been available as on option in the myChevrolet app the entire time I've had my C8 (~3 years), but I have not enabled it for obvious reasons.
03-11-2024, 11:05 AM
#123
Advanced
Whatever there bidding on, they will recoup that back when they jack up your insurance policy 
03-11-2024, 11:14 AM
#124
My statement was ambiguous. I'll go back and fix it. I was trying to say that the right to collect data (if they even have it) is only when the data are provided. That right to collect those data (whether granted intentionally, inadvertently, or by law) does not include forcing one to provide the data in my opinion. Meaning its not illegal to disconnect OnStar. If you think it is, see if you can find a statement that says "interference with the right to collect data, by turning off, disabling. disconnecting a source of data is prohibited by law and carries a penalty of ....yada yada". Such a rule, if it exists, would apply to cell phones, your lap top, etc. And, I made no comment about whether one knows they are providing those data. It was about whether or not you can disconnect the telematics module.
03-11-2024, 11:26 AM
#125
GM is selling OnStar data to insurance companies
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t...LLUpsXBOy91f18
I mean we all know it and carry around personal tracking devices daily (phones), but curious what the car reports if you don't activate onstar (I haven't in my current Z06) and don't use the app with the "safe driver" stuff activated. Also, there's a setting that allows it to record your voice prompts and send those back to a cloud data base in the name of improving the voice recognition.
Data is currency and GM has decided to lean into that... your car is recording everything you do, how you do it, and where you go.
I mean we all know it and carry around personal tracking devices daily (phones), but curious what the car reports if you don't activate onstar (I haven't in my current Z06) and don't use the app with the "safe driver" stuff activated. Also, there's a setting that allows it to record your voice prompts and send those back to a cloud data base in the name of improving the voice recognition.
Data is currency and GM has decided to lean into that... your car is recording everything you do, how you do it, and where you go.
The following 2 users liked this post by RapidC84B:
5632 (03-11-2024),
Car Junkie 24 (03-11-2024)
03-11-2024, 11:43 AM
#127
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t...LLUpsXBOy91f18
I mean we all know it and carry around personal tracking devices daily (phones), but curious what the car reports if you don't activate onstar (I haven't in my current Z06) and don't use the app with the "safe driver" stuff activated. Also, there's a setting that allows it to record your voice prompts and send those back to a cloud data base in the name of improving the voice recognition.
Data is currency and GM has decided to lean into that... your car is recording everything you do, how you do it, and where you go.
I mean we all know it and carry around personal tracking devices daily (phones), but curious what the car reports if you don't activate onstar (I haven't in my current Z06) and don't use the app with the "safe driver" stuff activated. Also, there's a setting that allows it to record your voice prompts and send those back to a cloud data base in the name of improving the voice recognition.
Data is currency and GM has decided to lean into that... your car is recording everything you do, how you do it, and where you go.
03-11-2024, 11:54 AM
#128
That is horrifying.
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Car Junkie 24 (03-11-2024),
CutterCade (03-11-2024)
03-11-2024, 12:05 PM
#130
I shared the NYT article in another thread... I'd wager that even though I have never turned on OnStar it's still reporting all my data.
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snork (03-16-2024)
03-11-2024, 12:06 PM
#131
The following 2 users liked this post by RapidC84B:
Car Junkie 24 (03-11-2024),
Ice9812 (03-11-2024)
03-11-2024, 12:09 PM
#132
Le Mans Master
My 2020 had Smart Driver enabled by default (or I don't remember enabling it) and I had a lot of "hard" events on my LexisNexis report.
03-11-2024, 12:15 PM
#133
Instructor
Just opt out of it is all you have to do. They sell anything or give it away after that and you get a lawyer.
03-11-2024, 12:26 PM
#134
How would L/N know if I'm passing a tractor on a a two lane highway or just having some fun or would it even matter. This would be a deal killer. Was it also on the C7s I wonder. I think having a performance car in this age of control is fast becoming a thing of the past.
03-11-2024, 12:35 PM
#135
Le Mans Master
I wonder about this. If you catch them selling your data after you opt out I imagine there could be big penalties and civil consequences. Doe anyone know what they are? The way some of these company these bureaucracies work it seems like there would be some opportunities for enterprising lawyers.
03-11-2024, 12:42 PM
#136
Drifting
My Chevrolet app just updated about a month ago- if it was there before I didn’t know about it
it definitely turned on by that update- I had one trip logged from last week. I turned it off
Mine is a 23
it definitely turned on by that update- I had one trip logged from last week. I turned it off
Mine is a 23
03-11-2024, 12:50 PM
#137
Race Director
Member Since: Mar 2001
Location: Bonneville Salt Flats, 223mph Aug. '04
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I hope AI can attend to and interpret it all for the real humans ultimately involved, since I cannot think of anything much more boring than what they would glean from me and my vehicles. 
03-11-2024, 01:38 PM
#140
I was asking a question and I doubt it is actually enforcible to intentionally interrupt communications at least not without other extenuating circumstances. But who knows for sure what we've signed away. Also consider the consequences on the warranty if such action were to interfere with an update meant to comply with anything from emission standards or vehicle performance not to mention mechanical failure if coverage is contested. Not something I would want to chance.