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Ford Eyes Use of Customers' Personal Data To Boost Profits (threatpost.com)
According to industry-watchers, Ford is looking to profit off the data it can collect from its 100 million customers. In addition to the data collected from its infotainment systems and mobile apps, "Ford's CEO recently suggested that the data collected by the company's financial services arm also represents a valuable, low-overhead asset," reports Threatpost. From the report: "We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles," said Ford CEO Jim Hackett during a Freakonomics Radio podcast. "The issue in the vehicle, see, is: We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us. We know what people make. How do we know that? It's because they borrow money from us. And when you ask somebody what they make, we know where they work, you know. We know if they're married. We know how long they've lived in their house because these are all on the credit applications. We've never ever been challenged on how we use that. And that's the leverage we got here with the data."
The comments, which were amplified by several auto-industry sources and the Detroit Free Press, sparked alarm in the Twitterverse. Against the backdrop of privacy disasters at Facebook and other stalwarts of the internet economy, the fear for many is that Ford sees selling access to consumers based on their lifestyle as a way forward. Is Ford considering selling consumer data as a revenue stream? Hackett stopped short of saying that -- and indeed, the data could instead simply be useful to the company internally, as a way to increase the value (and profit) of its other businesses.
The comments, which were amplified by several auto-industry sources and the Detroit Free Press, sparked alarm in the Twitterverse. Against the backdrop of privacy disasters at Facebook and other stalwarts of the internet economy, the fear for many is that Ford sees selling access to consumers based on their lifestyle as a way forward. Is Ford considering selling consumer data as a revenue stream? Hackett stopped short of saying that -- and indeed, the data could instead simply be useful to the company internally, as a way to increase the value (and profit) of its other businesses.
Every last one of them. That he would make such comments in the middle of the current privacy scandals shows an incredible lack of sensitivity and respect for their customers.
I locked all 3 credit agencies and paid cash for my last new car, and OnStar is disabled.
I'm not their customer, I don't trust them and I paid cash for my car.
nt
Stalin commended Ford for being a forward-thinking industrialist.
Now his company is dealing in ways that Ford would likely detest as "jewish."
Truly the real Jew... is inside us all.
hope they go bankrupt as they should have done in 2008. Not that this problem is unique to Ford -- any car with a 3g/4g modem built in is basically spying on its owner. At least there's a solution (for now) -- icepick through the antenna cable... This is why I love paying cash for efficient 90s cars. No spyware garbage built in.
Bingo. They sold it to cowards in the name of safety, for the cheeeeeldren.
This is precisely why I do buy IoT devices and do not subscribe to 'services' that send my personal information to somebody's 'cloud'. They will sell you out the first chance they get to make a buck at your expense. If you can control it with your phone, then you don't own the data it creates. It is sitting on somebody else's server and they can do whatever they want with it. Even if they promise (in writing no less) that they will never share it, they will. This goes for your video doorbell, your alarm system, your smart lighting system, your sprinkling system, etc., etc..
finance. I've never financed a car, ever. If I cannot afford a new car, I do not buy one. So they will NOT know how much I make, or where I work. Frankly, all that info is in the credit reporters, and they sell it already. So sorry ford, you have been beaten to the punch. They can track your location, but so does google/apple. So again, nothing new. Pretty soon it is going to be a buyers market for data. You want to buy data, well car company, make me an offer better than google. Google make me a better offer than cell, cell make me an offer better than the weather app... An individual's data will soon been fractions of a penny.
As a former owner of a piece of crap Ford Taurus, I didn't think I could hate Ford any more than I already do.
I was wrong.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Personal data is the new gold rush. Companies either want it, or they want to collect it to sell it. Or both.
Well, congratulations Ford. Well, you've assured I will not purchase a car from you. What a stupid negative marketing move. Gee, who will want to finance through you from now on. Especially since this is one of your big money makers.
So people are up in arms about automakers collecting location data, but OK with cell phones, Facebook, etc. doing the same thing?
Started with Chevy in the 1960s, Quality declined. Migrated to Ford in the 1990s. Quality declined. Now at Toyota. Hoping for the best.
Watch their stock drop like a rock now. Over the years Ford has made a lot of very bad decisions like this one. I remember Ford ambulances spontaneously exploding after they were run hard (this was in the late 80's). It was caused by thin cheap low-carbon metal gas tanks and exhaust system parts. They had the same attitude about it as with the Pinto - it's cheaper to pay burn death victims's families that it is to fix their crappy vehicles.
I do not belong to the church of the lowercase 'i'
...for their Vehicle Health Report Service and swore that I'd never use it. They don't/won't disclose the data they collect nor what they'll use it for (Summary: "We reserve the right to do anything we want with the data that gets uploaded"), and I swore that I'd never buy a Ford again. Reading TFA makes that even more of a promise.
(Yes, other companies may be as bad, but they haven't pissed me off like Ford has. Orphaning the the MS MyFord Touch system WHILE THE CAR WAS STILL UNDER WARRANTY was unforgivable.)
WTF?
And so it begins...
[($)]
Rope and pulley, carburated, manual choke, direct connection from toe to brakes (with hydraulics in the middle)
No GPS, no wifi, no CAN, no CPUs, no ECUs, No data. NO CARRIER
Just a light nimble little tincan with 4 wheels and 2 seats. I don't need anything more.
Fuck this modern data-sucking privacy-invading life. Fuck it hard and long, with a splintered phone pole.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/170615-0
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/meat-and-poultry-products/manual-of-procedures/chapter-4/annex-c/eng/1370525150531/1370525354148
As horrible as this is, the vast bulk of this data is already known. I don't believe this data will be of significant value in the data marketplace. People that want this data have vastly superior sources than Ford.
Actually... don't buy cars at all if you ever can pull that off. Not worth the hassle.
Fixed Or Repaired Daily
Found On Road Dead
or my favorite now:
Fucked On Recent Deal
Rotary engines are crap. Get a pre-1996 240sx instead.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Try it anywhere but in the US, and you'll have the local Data Protection Authorities on you in a heartbeat...followed by investigations...followed by fines, and class-action suits.
"The issue in the vehicle, see, is: We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us. We know what people make. How do we know that? It's because they borrow money from us. And when you ask somebody what they make, we know where they work, you know. We know if they're married. We know how long they've lived in their house because these are all on the credit applications. We've never ever been challenged on how we use that. And that's the leverage we got here with the data."
You are comparing the use of data that has federal laws in place dictating how you may and may not use it, with the use of data that covered by laws (or covered by more lax laws). That is not a valid comparison. If anything, it just makes us more suspect on how you plan to use the not-protected-by-law data.
Yeah, we trust you alright. Trust you to do everything under the sun with our data that is not expressly forbidden by law.
ford alerts have been happening for a couple of years. We track purchases of certain vehicles, and make cold calls one year later. We offer a free upgrade to a current model keeping the payments the same.
People don't like cold calls, even with a good offer.
We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us.
Not any more.
Nor will buy another brand of car that I can't blow the cell radio. Humans doing evil with Techology is our new motto.