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Subscribe to RSSFacing intense criticism from Capitol Hill and calls for a government investigation, General Motors’ OnStar division has dropped plans that would have allowed it to track detailed personal driving information about both current and former subscribers.
The Detroit Bureau
Most GM vehicles currently offer an initial, free subscription to the OnStar service.
The telematics subsidiary had advised users that it was changing its terms and conditions to permit it to track a vehicle’s speed, location and other data including whether or not a motorist was wearing a seatbelt. A driver who dropped OnStar would still be linked to the service unless specifically opting out. And the company said it reserved the right to sell that information to third-party marketers or even government and law enforcement agencies.
New York’s powerful Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer termed the move a “brazen” invasion of privacy and called for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Facing mounting criticism from other government and private quarters, OnStar said it has canceled its policy change and will not maintain a link to customers who quit the service.
“We realize that our proposed amendments did not satisfy our subscribers,” said OnStar President Linda Marshall in a prepared statement. “This is why we are leaving the decision in our customers’ hands. We listened, we responded and we hope to maintain the trust of our more than 6 million customers.”
The company continued to defend its initial plans, insisting they would have given OnStar the ability to send emergency messages to even those no longer subscribing to the service in the event, it suggested, of a tornado or other serious storm.
Going forward, Marshall noted, a link will be maintained only if a customer opts in voluntarily. And then, OnStar would “honor customer references” as to how it might use any data it collects.
The company notably did not say it would reverse its plans to be able to sell data collected from existing subscribers, however. The GM unit could track a vehicle’s speed, for example, as well as its location. Though OnStar officials insist they currently have no plans to do so, such data might be sold to a marketer interested in reaching motorists who might be passing a shopping mall, or to pitch a nearby brand of gasoline.
OnStar currently claims 6 million active subscribers. The service is offered free for a limited time with most new General Motors vehicles sold in the U.S. The telematics company has traditionally focused on safety and security issues, such as automatic emergency responder notification in case of a serious crash. But it has been expanding into other areas to remain competitive with other telematics firms, such as Ford’s popular Sync system.
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Let's see now. We're supposed to trust GM when they say they're not going to track people? I think not. Disabling the On-Star feature is the only sure way.
"... General Motors’ OnStar division has dropped plans that would have allowed it to track detailed personal driving information about both current and former subscribers."
Hot diggity dog- Government Motors was exposed for attempting to illegally track people and had to stop. I'm sure that there is a legaleze way of circumventing that statement, but it's hopeful that we might be heard sometimes.
I think there are a plethora of reasons for the tracking program- Pay by the mile taxation, ticketing after the fact by the data, using data to figure out where the greatest speed zones are, using the information for insurance company interests (prior to any tickets, charges, accidents occur), and just simply knowing where you are and where you tend to go.
"Who do they think they are, Barack Obama?"
No, I think you're confusing him with Cheney and Bush. They got monitoring of us down to an illegal science. Well, illegal if it wasn't automatically classified as a state secret and therefore unable to be brought before a court. On the other hand, Obama hasn't done anything to fix it either. :)
Anyway, it's really amazing that these morons decide they're going to monitor people who aren't even customers anymore, and then spin it as 'we love our customers and value our relationship with them, and that's why we've decided not to do this'. The management needs to be fired TODAY for even considering something so sleazy. These are not people you want making decisions, they obviously have no common sense or sense of right & wrong.
Another reason not to buy a car from Government Motors (GM). Let's hope GM bankrupt soon.
Nancy you won't be in court very long.. You have to accept Onstar terms of service to use their service and somewhere in that fine print is you agree to allow them to collect the information.
Obviously, they want to sell this information to insurance companies! Any insurance company would salvate at the opportunity to have actual driving information on it's customers and more importantly potential customers. It would drive insurability and rate decisions.
Note to anyone who isn't on the know about these things . . . if the information is kept anywhere law enforcement and the government can easily get it already.
I will never own a car that has OnStar capability. Seriously, how would you know if they are or are not tracking you? They can't if it isn't installed.
Progressive Insurance already has a little gizmo that reports that info in exchange for lower rates.
It's still 'Big Brother' but at least they are honest about it.
If you are REALLY paranoid about these things then turn your cell phone off when driving. Where you go and how fast you are traveling is easily calculated from the records logged by a moving cell phone. This came to a head not very long ago because the IPhone was logging the information internally in the phone. What would keep them from selling the data to your Insurance company?
Jus sayin'
Really good point, Underwhelmed.
My related thought is that most of these folks who are so worried about somebody spying on their driving habits, probably freely give away all kinds of personal information about themselves to whomever wants to read it on some social site like Face book. Go figure.
The difference is that a cell phones information would have to be collected, compiled and then pieced together. Cellphones dont automatically store if you are wearing a seat belt or speeding. Big brother could get that information but what it would take to get it will always outweigh the benefit from having it. OnStar would make all this information readily available with no compilation or calculation needed. The comparison would be a cop with a radar gun hiding behind a tree on the interstate versus a speed tracking device installed in your car that alerts the police to the location of speeders.
Candlewycke I agree on the cell phone data. Onstar is continuously exchanging data with the central systems. Cell phones generally hand shake with the towers as you travel but don't relay GPS data until queried either by an on phone app or e911 services.
Now if you want to OnStar all of Congress I would be for that. 24/7 posted to a web site LOL
The difference is that without cooperation by the cellphone owner, data collected from it is less useful to an insurance company. Why? It's because without cooperation, there's no way to know whether s/he is driving or riding, and if not driving even in a vehicle that the cellphone owner might insurer (maybe it's a bus or train car). However, if it's coming from a telematics system attached to a known vehicle like OnStar, then collected data would be very interesting to insurance companies.
That's a significant difference from an auto insurance standpoint between getting cellphone data without the owner's cooperation (even if through small-print consent) versus getting data somehow from a system like OnStar that knows the identity of the vehicle whose data it's reporting. If they can get OnStar-type data, then don't need any additional cooperation for the data to be useful to them.
Actually, even with the cellphone owner's cooperation, auto insurance companies probably aren't interested in basing actual discounts on data cellphone data for a simple reason. It would be too easy to cheat, and the cellphone owner would have a financial motivation to do just that (turn off the cellphone sometimes, claim s/he was riding in someone else's car, etc.).
So although explicit opt-in consent is a good idea for allowing companies to capture data from any device, it's especially important for devices that are attached to your vehicle and know either its or your identify -- unless you don't care whether that information may be used in negative as well as positive ways for auto insurance.
The only way to prevent them from doing the wrong thing is with money. Lets see if they would agree to a 1 million dollar penalty for information that gets released intentionally or not after they agreed to not collect it.
I suspect not, and since there is no penalty for outright lies they can sell it on the sly and say the didn't. They will of course just blame a dishonest employee from some country you cannot sue and they will laugh all the way to the bank.
I have no doubts such information would be sold to whoever had the money. Spam to my cell phone certainly increased after purchasing a GM product...and foolishly providing a cell phone number on sales documents.
I will not tolerate spam calls on my vehicle phone. While OnStar is a good thing, nobody needs or deserves "advertising" messages on a service we pay for. Shame on OnStar for even thinking of this, if that's what they were planning.
They didn't want to send you spam, they only wanted to monitor your driving habits (whether you still use the service or not) and sell them to insurance companies, law enforcement, or anyone else willing to pay. Much better, huh?
Next, its time to go after companies like Google for tracking your every move online and selling off the data. Word of advice, download the ghostery add-on for Firefox, not only can you see what companies are tracking you and what data they collect, you can also choose to block them from tracking you. Now, we just need to make a law to prohibit them from tracking us.
I just downloaded Ghostery. Wow! MSNBC itself uses 6 different trackers just on this page. Thank you, JWright!
Wait till you see some of the other sites out there. I've seen nearly 20 different trackers just on one site, it's ridiculous.
The only thing it doesn't show you is how much that super program you just installed to track and block others is tracking you.
It's an outstanding way to eliminate the competition while giving you a false sense of security.
They are not going to stop tracking people. This is just a public relations statement meant to falsely assure future buyers who see this as one of the factors in deciding to purchase a GM vehicle.
Let's face it: They know that they can't plead the "genie is out of the bottle" and can't be returned, but that's what it is, especially when they can make money from this technology. I will never buy a GM vehicle, new or used, that has OnStar hardware. This is the same company that sold vehicles and technology to Nazi Germany. This is the same GM that should have been left to die but was bailed out without the public's consent. This is the same GM that is as evil as it has ever been.
As "congress" is so concerned about our "privacy", where are they when the "government" wants all of our personal MEDICAL information forwarded to them from our doctors and other 'health care' workers?
Personally, I find it much more problematic that the government can't be stopped, while I can physically disable "Onb-Star" myself if I so desired.
Any company that doe's this is just plain wrong!
Or government where are they when this happens another disgrace.
Who believes that the MAN will not arrange for onstar to continue to collect that data and use it anyway?
OnStar has probable been doing this all along the thing that changed is that they wanted to start selling the data to 3rd party vendors. The Man will still have access to that data unless the broadcast capacity is physically disabled on the equipment.
Yeah? NE1?
General motors always has time, money, and energy to come up with stupid crap like thermometers on the outside mirror, heated seats, OnStar, 4-6-8 engines, the Vega, the Corvair, the Seville, the Lumina Van, the Aztec, on and on. But they cannot come up with a water pump that lasts for 100k. Their transmissions are so bad that the Aamco shop near me has a sign in the shop that says God Bless GM.
BTW when you see a vehicle that has messed up tail lights it is almost always GM or one of their affiliates.
Heated leather seats are awesome and everyone else in the industry has had them forever, so you might want to cut them slack for competing.
On the other hand, you did mention 'meet Aztec'. What a bit of genius THAT was. I haven't been tempted to pick any of their vehicles, and adding willingness to monitor your car and sell information about your driving habits doesn't exactly make me think it's a company I'd want to do business with in the future either.
Yes Nancy, I think the correct action is to sell my GM cars and never buy another. Put GM out of business and the others that remain, will never consider something like this. GM, you are fired.
Big Brother has been tracking your moves already so much,you`ve forgotten. A video spy camera everywhere(for your protection),Credit cards to see what,where and when you shop, Air miles cards when you use cash only and they can`t check your credit cards. Got a cel phone,you`ve been tracked since it`s been turned on!
Okay, there goes any plans I might have had to EVER get OnStar unless they change the policy of selling my data without my permission. I also object to them not giving me the option on what information they pull from my car. I should be able to say if I want them to routinely monitor seat-belt usage. I always wear mine, but it is my business and the cops, not GM's. I guess I will stick with Ford and Honda products.
1st of all "State Farm Insurance" is one of the most expensive insurers in the country. What little "discount" they offer motorists for installing a rat devise, is of little real value. Certainly not worth your privacy and integraty.
2nd: Why would anyone buy a GM product that had this rat devise installed? There are other devices that can do most of what "Rat-Star" can do without sacraficing your privacy.
3rd: The arrogant response by GM's management is a good reason to buy some other vehicle. There is a reason why they went Chapter 11 and this is typical of why.
4th: If Americans want to propagate and live in a "Police State" please disregard my comments and buy GM.
And yet you still have people screaming about government regulation. There is not one large corporation in this country that I would trust to do the right thing when given the choice.
The regulations did not evolve in a vacuum. We didn't wake up one day and say " You know what we need? An EPA". No we woke up one morning and found we could walk on water because of all the pollution and decided that if these companies couldn't police themselves then we would do it for them.
Just another example of why large corporations need to be kept on a very short leash!