Allstate Patents Physiological Data Collection

TigerPlish writes: Allstate has been granted patent no. US 20140080100 A1 for a "driving-behavior database that it said might be useful for health insurers, lenders, credit-rating agencies, marketers and potential employers." The program is just in the patent stage for now, but the company says: "the invention has the potential to evaluate drivers' physiological data, including heart rate, blood pressure and electrocardiogram signals, which could be recorded from steering wheel sensors." Imagine a world where you are denied employment or credit based on the information obtained from your car and sold by your insurer. What could possibly go wrong?

Comments

it has already gone wrong

[turkeydance]

what could go wronger?

Re:it has already gone wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Continuing with the slashdot redesign. Seriously, reading the articles is now an annoying chore. My eyes have to dart left-right to look at the comment count. The original design worked great. Change for the sake of change is bad, and undoubtedly will cost Slashdot in pageviews. The search for alternatives to slashdot is now commencing for me.

Re: it has already gone wrong

[MrKrillls]

You are a sample of just one. Employers are not always trustworthy or law abiding. Sometimes simply do not know the law. Lots of employers skirt laws with behaviour just barely inside the line, and in essense, discriminate all the time, etc.

first???

[Cutting_Crew]

and who in the right mind would buy a car with wheel sensors?
and would privacy advocates prevail to keep this from ever entering the market?
what would keep someone from just putting gloves on so it cant read the pulse on your hand?

Re:first???

[bondsbw]

who in the right mind would buy a car with wheel sensors?

Someone who could save a few bucks by joining the "Safe Habits Driving Bonus" program.

Re:first???

[TWX]

I will continue to drive older, low-mileage cars. Right now my two vehicles are both of the 1995 model year and neither is OBD-II.

Re:first???

[pak9rabid]

The same people who willingly install devices into their OBDII port that lets insurance companies monitor their driving habits.

Re:first???

[bobstreo]

What will you do when all cars come with wheel sensors?
What will you do when privacy advocates can't do a thing to prevent such a thing from happening?
What will you do when laws are passed so that cars won't work if the sensors can't read your hands?
Etc.

Maybe we'll get mandatory self-driving cars before that other thing happens.

Gloves?

Aftermarket steering wheels?

Steering Wheel covers?

Re:first???

[russotto]

The same people who willingly install devices into their OBDII port that lets insurance companies monitor their driving habits.

Wait, you mean I was supposed to plug that thing into my real OBDII port and not the one I hacked together to provide readouts for my ultra-realistic "Desert Bus" remake?

Re:first???

[Bob the Super Hamste]

I believe that would fall under the takings clause thus the government would have to provide compensation to all individuals who could no longer own their vehicles. The real bitch would be all of those old collector vehicles that instead of being worth a few thousand dollars are worth 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars. Having just been to one of the largest car shows in the US this past weekend you would be talking a non trivial amount of money even for the US government. Granted the value of these cars varies wildly but a lot of people with those cars have more money in them than they are worth so in such a state how would something be valued under the taking clause, the sum of the parts, appraised value, what ever the US Gov tells you? Add in that almost every one of those vehicle owners would likely file a suite against the government contesting the valuation and things would grind to a halt very quickly.

Re:first???

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Nothing. Their patent will expire long before then.

Re:first???

[pslytely psycho]

"However most of those classic collector's models don't get driven on the road, the majority of the pre-OBDII cars out there actually being driven are almost worthless beaters."

Yeah, there are those two extremes, beaters and garage queens.

There is also a middle ground of pre-OBD II classics that get driven nearly daily in the summer. A trailer queen might be good for bragging rights, but a driven classic, hot rod, custom has a rather nice side effect.

It gets you laid.

Re:first???

[kmoser]

"I'm sorry James, but your dynamic insurance rate went up 20% last month from aggressive driving. Here are some friendly tips on how to reduce that bill next month..."

You assume they would even give you the option to reduce your bill.

Patent 9,053,591

[sillivalley]

the linked document is the publication copy, not the issued patent. the issued patent is as cited above, which issued on June 9.

on first blush the claims seem pretty limited to speed/acceleration and location/speed.

I'd bet there's a continuation in the works on this one, going for broader claims.

Shaking my head

[DaMattster]

Insurance companies SHOULD NOT be in the business of patenting anything. All they really are is a subsidiary of the financial industry. They make and contribute nothing while taking exorbitant amounts of our money.

Re:Shaking my head

[neilo_1701D]

Insurance companies ... contribute nothing while taking exorbitant amounts of our money.

Whilst I've no great love of insurance companies, I do disagree with "contribute nothing". They contribute to your life by wearing the risk that you are unable or unwilling to wear yourself.

Example: I have a 2001 Infiniti QX4 which I paid $4500 for. At this point in my financial life, I simply cannot afford to risk the loss of that car; therefore I am paying Geico an agreed monthly sum for them to lay awake at night and worry, whereas I can get a good night's sleep. They have contributed to my life in the loss of stress.

Another example: public liability. If you own a house, are you willing to risk some nutjob walking down your driveway, "tripping" over a crack and suing you for every cent you have or will ever have? Me, I'd prefer to hand that risk off to some insurance company; preferably one who retains a cadre of lawyers thatnreally, really don't like the concept of giving that nutjob anything (except the legal bill). How about the total loss of everything you own in a fire? Do you want to have that risk yourself, or would you prefer to pay someone else to have that risk for you?

Yes, insurance companies can be a pain in the neck. Yes, you deal with an insurance company knowing full well you better bring your own KY. But I'd much rather deal with their crap than face financial ruin.

life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and my data?

[presidenteloco]

Do we need an extra constitutional right to the control of, and knowledge about, personally-identified data collected about us?

Good luck with that I know, given that we're all face-taggable by facebook, google, and the local police department already, not to mention the feds.

Sound Like HIPAA Violation to me

[budgenator]

Allstate's patent also said the invention has the potential to evaluate drivers' physiological data, including heart rate, blood pressure and electrocardiogram signals, which could be recorded from steering wheel sensors. ... The recorded data may also provide an objective behavioral data collection system for third parties, e.g., health insurance companies, lending institutions, credit-rating companies, product and service marketing companies, potential employers, to evaluate an individual's behavioral characteristics in a real-life and commonly experienced situation, i.e., driving a motor vehicle, Insurer monitoring your heart rate?

That's a lot of big words, but all I can hear is HIPAA violation!

Protected Health Information.
  The Privacy Rule protects all "individually identifiable health information" held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information "protected health information (PHI)."12

“Individually identifiable health information” is information, including demographic data, that relates to:

        the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
        the provision of health care to the individual, or
        the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,

and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.13 Individually identifiable health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number).
Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule

Detected a possible crash in the next 6 seconds..

[slazzy]

Detected a possible crash in the next 6 seconds - your insurance has been cancelled. Have a great day.