JLR threatened with class action for allegedly collecting, selling customer data

[Sprintey]

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-new...-customer-data

OK, data, phones, cookies, the lot

Is data collection and onselling a thing that happens with new cars?

[Crazy Dazz]

America, where the only reason you buy something, is so that you can sue the manufacturer.

[whynot]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-new...-customer-data

OK, data, phones, cookies, the lot

Is data collection and onselling a thing that happens with new cars?

Yes, definitely. There is big money in it. I think we are descending into an Orwellian dystopia (i.e. from his classic novel "1984"). Whereas in Orwell's book it was the government spying on its citizens, in todays society it is a mixture of government and big corporations (for the money).

To put a figure on the size of the honeypot, vehicle telemetric in USA is estimated to be worth $750 billion by 2030. This is serious cheddar cheese.

The sensors in a vehicle today can be collecting as much as 25 gigabytes of data per hour. How much is discarded and how much is summated/stored depends on vehicle and manufacturer.

There are a few different aspects. Some examples - but keep in mind not every manufacturer is doing the stuff listed below or doing it in Australia. However, these are examples of what manufacturers have done in other countries.

Example 1 - vehicle collects driver inputs (accelerator, braking, wheel movements). The vehicle can determine via its sensors the weight of individuals in each seat and can assign a unique ID to each driver. Collected data is stored on the vehicle and uplinked to the manufacturer. Since the manufacturer now owns the data (remember, you signed away your rights to this data when you purchased the vehicle), they onsell data about your driving behaviours to the insurance company.

Example 2 - You connect your phone to the vehicle via bluetooth. As part of the synch process nearly every phone uploads its contact list to the vehicle. The vehicle stores the phone contact list and call history. And, it also uploads it to the manufacturer. Since part of your phone data has been uploaded to a third party, you have lost control over that contact database. The phone list is now "owned" by the manufacturer. From your phone list, marketers match this data with other phone lists. Over time, it they build your relationships graph and determine quite a bit about your social-economic status, key marketing metrics, etc. And, here is the rub, since you no longer own the phone list, in certain jurisdictions and conditions it can be accessed by law enforcement without a warrant.

Example 3 - your vehicle is continuously recording a GPS breadcrumb trail. This information is uploaded to the manufacturer. The manufacturer can now figure out where you work (used to determine income), if and where the vehicle is used to take kids to school (used to determine social-economic status, and possibly religious affiliations), entertainment locations (e.g. sporting grounds), holiday locations (income and lifestyle), etc.

It is almost as bad as Facebook. However, whereas one can get by in the modern world without Facebook, it is somewhat more difficult to get by without a vehicle.

Further reading.

-- highly recommended as it provides an Australian perspective --
ENSURING LOCATION DATA PRIVACY IN CONNECTED AND AUTOMATED VEHICLES (CAVS)
Amy Dunphy
Australian National University Journal of Law and Technology
Vol 4(1) 2023
https://anujolt.org/article/118555.pdf
-------

Vehicle Telematics: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
IEEE Explore, March 2019
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/st...number=8666649

Regulatory options for vehicle telematics devices: balancing driver safety, data privacy and data security
International Review of Law, Computers & Technology
Sep 2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2023.2242671

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-new...-customer-data

OK, data, phones, cookies, the lot

Is data collection and onselling a thing that happens with new cars?

This practice started with banks and credit companies and now has spread across various business platforms, nothing new anymore.
All the corporate world has your details when you spend your hard-earned money on goods, taking out credit loans etc.

[Citroënbender]

It’s still offensive.

What particularly intrigues me though, is one aspect which I regard as both cowardice and a lack of opportunism. You cannot pay for anonymity, even to the minimum data retention standards of our government. Nobody is game to put a price on this data (likely in case it’s actually worth far less than they estimate).

[Sprintey]

Thank you for that detailed reply whynot, stuff like that makes the forums valuable. It's sobering to think the ownership of a record of movement/personal info/behaviour can pass from one party to another with the purchase of and use of a car.

[Cav]

I'm glad we fought against the implementation of the Australia Card.

[Sprintey]

Are you aware of the digital ID bill?