Hyundai cars are kind of mind-boggling. Driving a new car is like climbing into the cockpit of a spaceship—especially if you're old enough to remember that adding a cassette player was the pinnacle of automotive luxury. Most cars today offer navigation, touchscreen interfaces, music streaming, roadside assistance, and even assisted driving features. They can tell you when you're drifting out of your lane, when you're exceeding the speed limit, and when dangerous objects are approaching.
Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) they can also tell a lot of other people these things, along with a shocking litany of other information about you, your driving habits, and more. The situation is so bad that cars have been called the "worst product category" when it comes to privacy—and in a world where smartphones and smart TVs exist, that's saying something.
data
If your car is relatively new, it's designed to be a spy superstar—modern cars often come with microphones, cameras, and tons of sensors that collect data. But it's not just the sensors built into the car itself, it's all the apps installed on the car's interface, and all the apps installed on your phone that you might have linked to the car via Bluetooth, giving away all kinds of privacy in the car . the process of. That means it's possible that carmakers know the music you listen to, what you say in the car and the locations you look up on map apps. We're transmitting private information to car manufacturers; we just don't think about it. In fact, some automakers even admit to tracking your car-related sexual activity as well as health data.
One direct way this affects you is through your insurance rates. General Motors was caught transferring information about its cars to Lexis Nexis, a data broker that works with insurance companies to create risk profiles. The information includes the date and duration of each trip the driver made, distance traveled and records of emergency braking, speeding or taking turns too fast. This data is then used to increase drivers’ insurance rates—often confusing drivers who don’t know what their insurance company is basing their new rates on.
After outcry, GM stopped sending data to Lexis Nexis, but it still owns that data and still has the ability to send it wherever it wants, usually without alerting you.
Another way your data is used against you is through advertising: your driving habits, destination history, and probably everything else can and will be sent to data brokers, who in turn Selling to advertising partners, this should come as no surprise. The end result is creepy, targeted ads that learn about your driving habits and all kinds of related data. Automakers can also share your data with law enforcement, usually without your consent.
Of course, this data can be put to good use - diagnostic data can be sent to repair shops, location data can be provided to emergency services. But it's the complete lack of awareness that makes this so dangerous: you don't know what is being collected, how it is being collected, or how it can be used for or against your interests.
what can you do
so! Your car is a privacy nightmare. What can you do about this?
Request a report. You can contact Lexis Nexis and request a consumer disclosure report, or you can contact Verisk, which provides a similar service. Legally, they are required to provide this information upon request, and it will show you in horrific detail how much data, if any, has been collected about your driving habits. You can also insert your car's Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) into the Vehicle Privacy Report and learn what data is being collected and by whom.
opt out. Check the vehicle's interface settings and look for any options related to privacy or advertising. While you may want to send some data to the car manufacturer (so they can forward the information to emergency services, for example), disable anything that looks suspicious. If you have a separate car app on your phone, dig in and do the same.
Contact the manufacturer. You may be able to do more if you contact the car manufacturer directly. Most car companies have set up web pages where you can opt out of data collection (for example, General Motors' page is here , which lists similar pages for other manufacturers). You can also call their customer service line and choose to be contacted by a live person.
Please contact your insurance company. Ask them if they purchase such data and use it to assess your risk. You can't make them stop, but if they do, you might consider finding a new insurance company that specifically doesn't do this.
