General Motors Is Reportedly Sharing Driving Data With Insurance Providers
A feature General Motors users may not even know they’re signed up for is resulting in higher insurance premiums for some.
Technology, by and large, can typically be considered a good thing in many regards. After all, we have quite a bit of power in our pockets alone, toting around smartphones that make it possible for us to access just about any kind of information we could ever want at any time. However, there are also a lot of questions revolving around privacy and how it must be protected in this day and age, when data is king and companies are collecting it – including some rather personal information – and sharing/selling it with other companies. This includes automakers like General Motors, which is apparently sharing quite a bit of personal data with insurance providers, specifically, according to a new report from the New York Times.
This bit of news stems from the owner of a Chevy Bolt – Kenn Dahl – who made a startling discovery recently when his car insurance premium suddenly jumped 21 percent. When shopping around for a cheaper policy, one provider informed him that a company called LexisNexis was to blame, a data broker that provides insurers with information regarding the driving behavior of individuals. What Dahl discovered after requesting a copy of his consumer disclosure report was nothing less than shocking.
That report contained a whopping 130 pages outlining six months of driving with dates, the distance driven, and any times Dahl or his wife had been speeding, accelerating sharply, or braking hard. This information was collected by General Motors and provided to LexisNexis “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage,” according to a LexisNexis spokesman, Dean Carney.
Most are well aware that in today’s world, many insurers offer customers the option of using connected vehicle technology to analyze their driving behavior and possibly give them lower rates, but so far, those programs haven’t exactly been terribly popular. Thus, automakers and insurers are instead turning to connected vehicle data to provide usage-based insurance, which consumers must opt in for.
However, in many cases, those that opt in to use connected vehicle services such as remote start and navigation or even optional features that rate one’s driving often consent to having this data collected without potentially knowing it, with the details contained in fine print or privacy policies that few tend to read. In the case of General Motors, a feature called OnStar Smart Driver has reportedly been tracking owners without them even having to opt in – after which that data was shared with insurance companies, resulting in rate hikes in some cases.
Though customers can opt out of this feature, when signing up for it, there is no prominent warning or disclosure noting that one’s data will be shared with third-party companies, and that’s precisely what has made many a bit concerned, and rightfully so. In fact, there are a handful of lawmakers calling for a review of such practices, and a number of customers even report having been signed up for OnStar Smart Driver unknowingly by dealerships, as salespeople can receive bonuses for higher enrollment figures. In other words, aside from checking to see if one is unknowingly enrolled in that particular feature, a little more transparency on this topic as a whole is needed – after all, consumers should know what kind of personal data companies are collecting from them, no matter what it’s being used for.
Photos: Chevrolet
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