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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'm not their customer, I don't trust them and I paid cash for my car.
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.
Old Henry was also a big admirer of Hitler...
It's probably not truly disabled unless you snip the antenna cable. Services that help you may be disabled, but it might still be able to phone home to the automaker...
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.
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?
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.)
Incorrect - plenty of parts of the us with no cell signal, cars still work there. It would just think it's somewhere with poor reception.
Old Henry was also a big admirer of Hitler...
It was mostly the other way around. Adolf was a big admirer of Henry Ford. Ford was the only American mentioned favorably in Mein Kampf.
Henry Ford was an antisemite, but he was also a pacifist and did not believe in violence. He explicitly condemned the Nazi attacks on the Jews in the 1930s.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with Ford Motor Company today.
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
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.'"
Migrated to Ford in the 1990s. Quality declined. Now at Toyota. Hoping for the best.
I don't know anything about Toyota's quality, but if you are disappointed, try Honda or Honda-owned Acura. We are happy Honda/Acura owners.
Good luck.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us.
Not any more.
Now at Toyota. Hoping for the best.
Toyota actually improve over time.
The Toyota Way
Avoid the MS tax, always buy I.B.M. PC's (I Built-it Myself)
Toyota has been on a long downhill side. They peaked sometime in the mid-90's. The 1992-1996 Camry is probably the best car they'll ever build. Nowadays they seem complacent, assuming that they can build whatever and people will buy it because it has a Toyota badge on it. That's not to say Toyotas are bad cars if you can put with the increasingly bizarre styling, but the years of decontenting is obvious.
The ones to keep an eye on are the Koreans as they seem to be trying really hard and they've made huge improvements over what they were selling years ago. I don't think they are quite there yet, but they could very well do to Toyota the same thing Toyota did to GM back in the 80's.
The funny thing about GM is they've actually done a pretty decent job on some of their newer cars, but no one has noticed because everyone has completely written them off.