Remember when I told you that GM was resisting Car Play/Android Auto because they wanted to collect data from their customers so they could sell it? Did you think that I was merely mounting my privacy hobby horse and exaggerating? It turns out I wasn’t.
GM has agreed to pay $220 million dollars to settle a suit by 35 states and the District of Columbia that alleges GM collected data from their customers via their Smart Drivers program and, even though they promised not to, sold the data to data brokers and insurers who used it to set, and sometimes increase, insurance rates.
Personally, I find this remedy and the previous one with the FTC inadequate. The FTC agreement stipulates that GM can not collect user data for 5 years. How about never? No matter what GM claims, there’s no reason to collect this data other than to sell it.
GM’s insistence on using their own media system is just another indication that they want to continue collecting and selling their customers’ data. Why anyone would buy a GM car after this is beyond me. John Gruber agrees. He finds their cars of poor quality but says that even if they made decent cars, he wouldn’t buy one because GM thinks it’s just fine to rat out their customers to the insurers. Don’t even get him started on the Car Play thing.