Your 'Connected' Car May Be Transmitting Your Driving Data to Insurance Companies

[RedLightning86]

Weird. I opted out of all the info sharing when I got the truck. And, I have all the tiles and functionality in Ford Pass. Guess I'm just boring.

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[Runaway Tractor]

Weird. I opted out of all the info sharing when I got the truck. And, I have all the tiles and functionality in Ford Pass. Guess I'm just boring.

Have you been into the connectivity settings to look at them recently?

 

[bmwhitetx]

"LexisNexis Risk Solutions ingests and normalizes connected car data through its data platform,

I think people are confusing the term normalizes with anonymizes. They are nowhere near the same thing. Normalizes does not mean the data is made anonymous or grouped together. Quite the contrary.

LexisNexis is a database provider. In this context normalizing is referring to a database process that reorganizes the data to allow it to be queried and compared easier to other data within the database. For instance tying VIN-based data to SSN or person ID using other data they have.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/246701/what-is-normalisation-or-normalization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization
www.simplilearn.com/automated-recruiting-in-companies-article

 

[carys98]

It looks like @Ford Motor Company responded on Reddit. They should probably post the same to the other forums.

 

[THX1138]

The US needs a GDPR like privacy legislation enacted to protect consumer's privacy.

 

[ctuan13]

Common sense approach to this is we all should have easy access to our own data whether it is tied to our specific vehicle or recorded as a group. We should have easy access with whomever it has been shared and have ability to delete it. It should be treated like art; the source of data (us) should retain copy rights.

I have no confidence turning off sharing data in vehicle will actually stops sharing data. The only way to be sure is having access to data that has been collected on me. Not by requesting, but by simply logging to my account. This should be a right not a privilege.

There's only one sure-fire way to ensure your vehicle isn't sharing any data whatsoever

 

[Maxx]

There's only one sure-fire way to ensure your vehicle isn't sharing any data whatsoever

Some features may be useful. If your truck is stolen, you may want it to be able to tell your app or the mother ship where it is. But every time that info is requested, there should be a log, when and by whom. But if thieves are not big idiots, they probably will disable this first. Or use it to find the best place to take your truck.

 

[rdr854]

Thanks for explaining this. However, it begs the question: if it isn't legal to use driver specific data to change driver specific rates, how are they using traffic violations against people?

Insurance carriers have your drivers license information from when you fit your insurance and run DMV reports as part of your policy renewal.

If it is like the GM report, I suspect that Lexis Nexis is reporting data like hard braking and rapid acceleration. Unless you have a profile set, the car does not know the driver.

 

[VAF84]

Give this a go https://optout.lexisnexis.com/

Thanks for sharing that, just opted my family out.

 

[Amps]

The Daily (NYT podcast) covered this topic today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/podcasts/the-daily/car-gm-insurance-spying.html

 

[Runaway Tractor]

On Wednesday, turned off Share Driving Data, but left on share vehicle data. As others have noted, the charging data disappears from the FordPass app when you disable driving data. I don't mind that since I really only care about the SOC and range anyway.

Now, you'd think that means the charging data is no longer being shared to begin with. NOPE. It's all still readily available. It's just the app that hides the data from you! I have my Home Assistant connected to my Ford account and still pulls all the data that disappeared from the app.

With share driving data disabled, Ford is intentionally hiding charging data in the app even though that data is still actually being shared. This actually smells like a bug in the application, and that it was supposed to be when you turn off share vehicle data. It would be incredibly malicious if this is on purpose.

Connectivity Settings: Driving data off, vehicle data on.

FordPass app with charging data hidden for no apparent reason

Home Assistant showing all the charging data is still being shared

More data in Home Assistant

 

[reffahcs]

On Wednesday, turned off Share Driving Data, but left on share vehicle data. As others have noted, the charging data disappears from the FordPass app when you disable driving data. I don't mind that since I really only care about the SOC and range anyway.

Now, you'd think that means the charging data is no longer being shared to begin with. NOPE. It's all still readily available. It's just the app that hides the data from you! I have my Home Assistant connected to my Ford account and still pulls all the data that disappeared from the app.

With share driving data disabled, Ford is intentionally hiding charging data in the app even though that data is still actually being shared. This actually smells like a bug in the application, and that it was supposed to be when you turn off share vehicle data. It would be incredibly malicious if this is on purpose.

The home assistant app is pulling that info from the home assistant database. It might pull some data from your Ford account, but I would guess the bulk of that data is coming from the charger and not from Ford's cloud.
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/energy-monitoring-database-location-question/367672

 

[Runaway Tractor]

It might pull some data from your Ford account, but I would guess the bulk of that data is coming from the charger and not from Ford's cloud.

I'm using the dumb mobile charging cable, which is not a connected device. All data is coming from the Ford connected vehicle services cloud.

 

[reffahcs]

I'm using the dumb mobile charging cable, which is not a connected device. All data is coming from the Ford connected vehicle services cloud.

Oh that's pretty cool. I'll have to look into that home assistant app.

Also a bit alarming that all of that data is available from Ford with data sharing disabled. Makes you wonder what the switch actually does?

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Oh that's pretty cool. I'll have to look into that home assistant app.

Also a bit alarming that all of that data is available from Ford with data sharing disabled. Makes you wonder what the switch actually does?

The switch disables driving data and I expect that data is indeed no longer being shared. The app is hiding charging data, which is either a punishment or a bug in the app. I would expect charging data to actually stop being shared if I turn off share vehicle data.

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