If you drive a car made by General Motors and it has an internet connection, your car’s movements and exact location are being collected and shared anonymously with a data broker.
This practice, disclosed in a letter sent by Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts to the Federal Trade Commission on Friday, is yet another way in which automakers are tracking drivers, often without their knowledge.
Previous reporting in The New York Times, which the letter cited, revealed how automakers including G.M., Honda and Hyundai collected information about drivers’ behavior, such as how often they slammed on the brakes, accelerated rapidly and exceeded the speed limit.
It was then sold to the insurance industry, which used it to help gauge individual drivers’ riskiness.
The two Democratic senators, both known for privacy advocacy, zeroed in on G.M., Honda and Hyundai because all three had made deals, The Times reported, with Verisk, an analytics company that sold the data to insurers.
Persons:
Ron Wyden, Edward J, Markey
Organizations:
General Motors, Oregon, Massachusetts, Federal Trade Commission, The New York Times, Honda, Hyundai, Democratic, The Times
Locations:
G.M