Car Manufacturers Are Tracking Millions of Cars (boingboing.net)

Cory Doctorow writes: Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are "connected," having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks to the "explicit consent" of the car owners -- who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.
Slashdot reader Luthair adds that "OnStar infamously has done this for some time, even if the vehicle's owner was not a subscriber of their services." But now 78 million cars have an embedded cyber connection, according to one report, with analysts predicting 98% of new cars will be "connected" by 2021. The Washington Post calls it "Big Brother on Wheels."

"Carmakers have turned on a powerful spigot of precious personal data, often without owners' knowledge, transforming the automobile from a machine that helps us travel to a sophisticated computer on wheels that offers even more access to our personal habits and behaviors than smartphones do."

Comments

Used?

[Tablizer]

"explicit consent" of the car owners -- who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.

What about second-hand buyers? They don't typically sign a contract with original dealer or manufacturer.

Re:Used?

[mrbester]

Vague and misleading clauses in contracts tend to be unenforceable. Therefore the use of that data in EU is unauthorised and on breach of data protection laws. It will be interesting to see if any information commissioners decide to prosecute. The UK one certainly has for a lot less.

Re:I think this will end badly

[tinkerton]

Insurers getting their hands on your data and 'optimizing' their policies to it.

In Europe GDPR puts a stop to this

[Aliks]

As of 18th May there are strong limits on slurping up data without explicit buy in from the subject.

Just great.

[fahrbot-bot]

Now I have to cover my car in tin foil too.

Re:Don't use their connected service

[DCFusor]

Gm uses the phone they build into the car whether you like it or not, and whether you bought minutes or not. And if it can't find a cell tower, it goes satellite. Yup, more than one band is available.
I know this is true on my 2012 Volt - because I can still use the car phone in places where cell phones do not have any bars at all, and don't work. But it's expensive and I haven't bought any minutes in years.

Re:Not as bad as cell phones

[mentil]

Indeed, false hyperbole is literally the worst thing ever.