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Transportation Privacy

One of Two Major Data Brokers Shuts Down Product Related To Driver Behavior Patterns (therecord.media) 35

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record: The revelation earlier this year that General Motors had been selling driver behavior patterns to data brokers -- who in turn packaged and resold it to insurers -- has led at least one of two major data brokers to shut down its related product. That data broker, Verisk, disclosed last month that it has stopped accepting data from car makers and no longer sells the information to insurers, according to the organization Privacy4Cars, which received the response after sending the data broker an inquiry.

"Verisk received driving data from vehicles manufactured by General Motors, Honda, and Hyundai and may have provided a Driving Behavior Data History Report ("Report") to insurers upon request, as a service provider to such insurers, that included certain data provided by these manufacturers," the Verisk response to Privacy4Cars said. "Please note that Verisk no longer receives this data from these automakers to generate Reports and also no longer provides Reports to insurers," the statement added.

While Verisk has stopped selling car company-provided driver behavior patterns to insurers, LexisNexis Risk Solutions continues to prominently promote its driver behavior data product for insurers despite the mounting backlash from state governments, federal officials and consumer groups. LexisNexis Risk Solutions' Telematics OnDemand page remains online, boasting that it is "bringing automakers and insurance carriers together." "By partnering directly with automotive OEMs, LexisNexis is able to turn connected car data into tangible driving behavior insights that can be leveraged within insurance carriers' existing workflows," the page says. Much of LexisNexis Risk Solutions' work remains shrouded in secrecy.

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One of Two Major Data Brokers Shuts Down Product Related To Driver Behavior Patterns

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  • by stooo ( 2202012 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @03:55PM (#64544711) Homepage

    Data Broker = Data Rapist.

  • by LazarusQLong ( 5486838 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @03:56PM (#64544717)
    For people to remove these sorts of things from their vehicles and replace them with products that you can truly control for yourself.
    • Never going to happen. Maybe some individuals might hack their own cars, but likely the Manufacturers will deny service to them unless a right to repair bill is passed. Even then, that only allows the individual to hack their own car. I doubt they'll add an option to opt out
      • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @04:44PM (#64544811)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • thanks for enlightening me, I had no idea GM would allow it to be turned off by the vehicles owner. I agree 100% with your two corrections to the policy, opt in rather than opt out and not nearly so much legalese.
        • by thomn8r ( 635504 )

          There's already an option to opt out [...] but whatever, it was six clicks on the website to opt out. Took me less than two minutes.

          The data cynic in me wonders if you really opted out, or if the UI just lets you think you opted out.

        • by Hylandr ( 813770 )

          Without the middle man the manufacturers will be able to sell directly to the insurance companies now. Opt in or out, how will you know they're doing it?

    • by Dracos ( 107777 )

      The US Federal government mandated passenger vehicle black boxes starting with the 2011 model year, at the behest of the insurance companies and others pretending to be safety advocates. I think in at least some states a vehicle cannot pass inspection without it.

      Frankly, I'm surprised there were only two companies selling insurers the data they feel entitled to. There will be two again.

      • A black box doesn't communicate or do anything on its own. It's inert until an investigator pulls it out of a wreck and recovers the data on it.

        If there's something different in your car, it's not a black box.

        The companies selling their data to insurers are named GM, Hyundai, and Honda. They haven't gone anywhere.

      • oddly enough, searching on google for "US Federal government mandated passenger vehicle black box" I come up with NO hits showing it was a law passed 13 years ago. I do see that it was proposed recently, on NPR, they say that in 2013 the government was considering, in 2013 making them mandatory. At that time they were intended for use in crash reconstruction. Not for transmitting out of the vehicle to anyone... but just like an airliners black box, only made for auto's.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Yeah. That's why insurance companies are buying your driving data that was collected by your phone.

      And no, it's not via apps that the insurance companies make - there are apps like GasBuddy (used to find cheap gas), a weather app, a road conditions app, and many unrelated apps that have been found to be selling your driving habit data to insurance companies.

      So no, even if your car isn't reporting your driving habits, your phone apps are, and likely apps you're using while driving at that.

      • actually, I don't use many of those apps, and tend to keep my phone in a bag which is basically a faraday cage, but soft and malleable, rather than hard wired. None of my vehicles is new enough to have that 'report back to the mothership' feature. My wife bought me a stand alone GPS device back in 2013, it is receive only and you update the maps via thumb drive. When we drive anywhere new and different, or take a vacation and need a gps device at our destination, we bring that along.
  • by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @04:11PM (#64544751)

    ...or at least until the wheels fall off, the gearbox grenades, or I launch the engine through the hood.

    I don't want your chunky, butch styling and size and mass for the sake of size and mass.

    I don't want your subscription anything.

    I don't want your telematics. What use is a car that is a snitch?

    Peak Car was mid-2000s. Enshittification hit the car after that.

  • And I'm sure the company won't pop up with a new name and continue with the raping. All companies and executives involved with this are assholes. I don't understand why the C-Suite of GM isn't being held accountable.

    • Re:Right, uh huh (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @04:33PM (#64544793)

      And I'm sure the company won't pop up with a new name and continue with the raping. All companies and executives involved with this are assholes. I don't understand why the C-Suite of GM isn't being held accountable.

      Because here in America we worship greed. And nobody exemplifies greed like the C-Suites. Those folks seem utterly exempt from all consequences of their actions. They are "decision makers" and "movers and shakers" and "driving innovation" and "creating great improvements" and all the other nonsense that gets thrown around about them. What they aren't is culpable, responsible, or self-aware. They drive every decision, and when it blows up in their face there's always an underling to take the blame, or the corporation to provide a shield while they strap on the golden parachute and head into the next company to rape.

      These are who we consider the cream of societies crop. The best of the best. They know everything and are as untouchable to us commoners as gods were back when people still believed in any god other than the almighty dollar. You can't go after them unless they fuck up so egregiously that even our government officials go, "Woah. Now that person is a real shit."

  • i am putting my phone in a faraday pouch while driving, and the only time ill take it out is when parked somewhere, goddamn phones are snitching on everyone
  • Data, not behavior (Score:5, Informative)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @04:41PM (#64544803)

    >"Driving Behavior Data History Report"

    No, it might be driving DATA history report, but it is *not* behavior. That calls for jumping to conclusions BASED on the limited data, and then making up judgements about the driver without any relevant supporting evidence.

    Someone pulls out in front of you with no warning, you have to slam on your brakes. Data shows "excessive breaking" label "bad driver", but not your fault. In fact, you were PAYING ATTENTION and PREVENTED an accident. You are running out of room for a merge and have to accelerate hard to get into the only remaining spot. Data shows "excessive acceleration" label "bad driver" which is not at all true. I can do this all day long with examples. It is crude and unfair to place such labels on drivers and manipulate their rates without knowing all the facts and circumstances.

    There is no way in hell I am allowing such data about my car to be "shared" with anyone, as long as I can help it. I am a good driver, with a perfect record. But I drive like I mean it, too. And I shouldn't be put in some risk category because some bean counter decided I exceeded maximum braking events, or corner "too hard" in a car (that has excellent handling, suspension, and tires), or accelerate quickly (without any loss of control or slipping tires) because I am not some 100 year old grandparent and enjoy driving spiritedly.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @05:00PM (#64544843)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • >"You say you're a spirited driver, cool story bro, are you a defensive one?"

        Extremely so

        >"Spirited driving is for the track."

        No, that is race driving. Big difference.

        >"You're piloting a 2,000+ pound death machine on a public roadway shared with other human beings."

        And when I am driving a motorcycle, which is often, I am the one that would suffer way, way more. I know a LOT about defensive driving :)

        My points still stand. One-offs are *not* conclusive evidence of poor driving. The best, most a

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • The threshold wouldn't be arbitrary, it would be actuarial. We are talking about an insurance company. They understand probability distributions, at a minimum.

          Slow drivers may create hazards, but they don't create costs for the insurance company. The guy swerving around the slow driver without checking does.

    • by necro81 ( 917438 )

      No, it might be driving DATA history report, but it is *not* behavior. That calls for jumping to conclusions BASED on the limited data, and then making up judgements about the driver without any relevant supporting evidence.

      Read Weapons of Math Destruction [wikipedia.org]. It's all about how companies use all kinds of proxy data of limited value, whitewash it through a proprietary black box algorithm of questionable provenance, and come up with some score that 1) can profoundly affect your life, and 2) you have no rec

  • "That data broker, Verisk, disclosed last month that it has stopped accepting data from car makers and no longer sells the information to insurers"

    Yeah they stopped that.

    What they do now is "find a loving forever home" for data from vehicle producers (not car makers), and they don't "sell" anything, they instead "trade fun facts" about the data to "companies who may or may not be in the insurance business". And they don't do it for "money", nooooo, they do it all for good wishes and prayers.

    See, th
  • So put yourself in Big Insurance's shoes. Folks don't want their data tracked. They also want cheap insurance coverage and generally, fair insurance coverage where riskier drivers pay more. Right now, its general factors like age, experience, distance driven that are used. Is it not better to use real data?
    • by DMDx86 ( 17373 )

      Your history of traffic infractions and at-fault accidents seem like a good individualized up-to-date data source to me.

  • A carmaker could report filtered data about your driving (only calm driving), causing insurance rates to drop for their cars, causing increased demand for said cars. They could even make money on selling of the data, since it would be not be false data - kind of like most ad supported news operates nowadays.
  • by mail?

    Dear MR SMITH we are sending you this notice because last MAY 7 your car exceeded the maximum allowable speed limit on BRODWAY near MAIN. For approximately 74 SECONDS averaged a speed of 33.02 MPH, with a maximum of 34.715 MPH.
    The penalty for this is a fine of $2,125 plus increased insurance premiums which will be revealed to you when you renew. You have ten days to make payment.

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