Cars Are Selling Our Data Since 2001

It’s potentially a $400 billion business, and it’s right under our noses. 

Data is a powerful asset. If anything, it’s the currency of the future, if not, the present day. The more companies know about us, the more products they can sell.

It’s been this way for years and will certainly not stop. 

Cars are selling our data, and people don’t know about it.

The problem is that we commonly associate data collection with health apps and phones. Still, these aren’t the most insecure devices when collecting data.

We must turn to our commute to find the number one ranked insecure device. 

The cars and trucks we drive provide heaps of data to companies, and most drivers have no idea.

Listen to this episode in our podcast here:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-wheel-trends/episodes/Cars-are-selling-your-data-e2oka62

We’re diving into how cars became data-collecting devices and how this will evolve in the future. 

Cars are selling our data. When did it begin?

We might believe that this situation is recent, but it’s not.  Cars are selling our data since decades ago.

One article by Forbes found evidence of data tracking in cars as far back as 2001. 

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact date on which companies began collecting data, it’s easy to provide an estimate, at least in the US.

Here’s a disclaimer: this isn’t an attack on a single company because it wasn’t that way. Instead, several companies were able to track down cars and even pinpoint their locations.

However, one brand stands above the rest in the notoriety of its cases when cars are selling our data: OnStar. 

Onstar was founded in 1996 and relied on existing telecom networks to transmit information, which at the time were 2G and eventually 3G systems. This was important because it meant that vehicles had to be connected to a network all the time. 

By 1997, the system was installed in several cars. It’s been since then that cars are selling our data

The idea was that OnStar would be able to locate your car if it had been stolen, and to achieve this, you needed connectivity, hence being permanently connected to the 2G systems.

That’s just one example. As we’ll see later, it wasn’t only for finding stolen vehicles but for much more. 

Systems such as Onstar and ATX (which would later become Agero) had one simple premise: to provide the driver with all sorts of assistance, from directions to even sending a mechanic. From the customer’s perspective, that doesn’t sound all too bad.

After all, back then, mobile phone technology wasn’t as advanced, so having a road assistant made sense. 

Plus, these systems could analyze changes in velocity, braking, and turning. Therefore, they could sense if the driver had been in an accident and provide assistance. And it worked. 

Ironically, stats are hard to find. In 2021, OnStar reported receiving 150,000 calls in a month and 6,000 crashes in the same period. 

These tools proved their worth, at least for the customer, but they also proved valuable for other uses. 

Cars provide a lot of data

It seems like the plot of a thriller film, but it’s real life. Cars are selling our data, and here’s how.

In 2001, the Organized Crime Strike Force in Nevada was looking to hunt down a Mercedes Benz S430 with the following VIN: WDBNG70J51A85398. That’s just a teaser if you want to CARFAX it.

The car had been linked to crimes, and authorities wanted to listen in on their conversations. 

A court document filed in December of that year showed that the company, now AGERO, had initially complied with providing audible communications in the Mercedes Benz for 30 days throughout November.

When the FBI asked again to listen in the next month, the company declined and was almost held in contempt. However, the company was not found in contempt, but it shows just how efficient the system was, and this wasn’t the only case.

If anything, this is the least contrived of examples. Here’s what we mean. In that situation, the FBI and others needed information and pressured the company to provide it. However, sometimes, it happens the other way. 

As shown in the legal case, a man named Gareth Wilson purchased a used Chevy Tahoe in 2006. 

However, months later, while in his car, he accidentally pressed the OnStar button, and an operator heard the entire conversation. The OnStar employee claims he had heard about a possible illegal drug transaction and allowed the local Sheriff to listen in. 

Eventually, Wilson’s appeals were overturned. Ironically, Wilson had never signed up for the OnStar services, but the previous owners had not shut off the system. 

These examples might seem unusual, but the point goes beyond that. 23 years ago, the technology was there to track conversations, unlock vehicles, and even call authorities. 

While GM and other companies insisted that they didn’t track conversations unless asked by an authority, suspicion began to grow. As vehicles, networks, and technology progressed, so did the car’s ability to collect data. 

If you have any doubts about your car, you can ask our virtual mechanic here!

Technology makes cars safer, but also more valuable

OnStar, Agero, and similar competitors were only the beginning of this technological leap, which, as one article called them, turned cars into “computers on wheels.” 

In 2023, the Mozilla Foundation released a research article that revealed just how much data cars had. The foundation focuses on data privacy, and it presents an interesting dilemma. 

We’ve always considered all this data gathering as essential for safety, but what about our privacy?

Cars are selling our data, but it turns out that cars, trucks, and SUVs are terrible at protecting our privacy. The foundation tested 25 brands, and none of them ranked positively. In fact, vehicles earned the ranking of worst products for privacy. 

How are cars selling our data?

Modern vehicles can brake automatically, have traction control systems, and even drive themselves.

And how do they do that? Well, in a broad sense, with data. Speed, acceleration, distance, and weight are all key elements of modern safety systems. 

Take something as old as airbags. They need sensors to indicate a sudden change in acceleration; thus, they have several parameters. 

Cars are selling our data and it’s almost endless, and it’s becoming much more valuable for both drivers and automakers. But it doesn’t end with the companies. It’s more complex than that. 

Take Google Maps as an example.

The company benefits from having a permanent connection to the vehicle, as our driving can constantly feed everything from geopositioning to our destinations. Eventually, we might even see ads in our driving.

Well, that’s a reality sooner than later. Cars are selling our data, but soon, cars will be selling us stuff.

While vehicles are safer, they’re also more profitable. 84% of the brands in the Mozilla study share or sell your data to other companies.

Which companies, you might ask?

Well, it’s vague and imprecise. In fact, it’s almost impossible to pinpoint the nature of these companies that feed off our data. However, insurance companies are likely part of the mix. 

76% of those brands actively sell our data, and 56% admit that they share the information with the government or law enforcement with a request, not a court order or a warrant. 

So, now we know we’re being tracked, but what can we do? 

The short answer is that we can do very little, but driver privacy is becoming increasingly important. 

The consequences of data tracking

This is a personal guess, but interest in how to protect ourselves grew after the pandemic, especially in 2023. 

Some companies have created massive step-by-step guides for deleting your data reactively, which means that after it has been collected.

That’s the story of Privacy4Cars. Now, they’re not endorsing this article in any way. 

This company was born in 2019, after the founder Andrea Amico taught his daughter how to retrieve texts from his car, when she was only eight years old. 

The company educates consumers on how to delete data from their cars. However, all manufacturers have different ways of doing this. 

The main problem with the data in your car is that it’s hard to avoid having it collected in the first place. As we mentioned before, cars are constantly picking up data, and since they might be permanently connected to networks, the data is gone in seconds. 

However, through companies such as Privacy4Cars, consumers can learn specifically what data is coming from their cars, which can be frightening. The following is a short list of data that it has found some companies provide:

• Identifiers such as social security number, passport number, insurance policy, and employment history
• biometrics such as fingerprint mapping
• Geolocation data
• Text, calls, and social media notifications

That’s downright frightening, but it’s almost unavoidable. Or is it?

The future of car data is a given. By 2030, 95% of vehicles will have embedded connectivity for “safety” purposes. 

But this comes at a time when companies such as Tesla plan to create their own insurance companies. The writing is on the wall, and consumers are fighting back. 

Companies get called out because cars are selling our data

On March 11, 2024, Kashmir Hill reported in the New York Times that automakers have been sharing information with insurance companies for years. 

The article called out two companies, GM and Ford.

Drivers who considered themselves respectful and safe found themselves with spiking insurance premiums, thanks to limited examples of harsh accelerating.

However, these instance of hard driving were enough to increase the insurance. 

One driver found that there a 258-page report on his driving. He had a leased Chevy Bolt and had no idea that his car produced so much data. 

On the other hand, Ford has filed for a patent that includes an insurance management system within the vehicle.

By constantly analyzing how the vehicle behaves, this system will be able to calculate the possible insurance adjustments to come. 

And, all along, drivers were oblivious. 

Eleven days after the report was published, GM officially announced that it would stop sharing data with the brokers creating insurance company profiles. This was a small victory, but it still left much to be desired. 

After all, internal documents showed that 8 million vehicles were part of the profile creation, and GM isn’t the only one, as Mozilla had explained. 

Other articles have highlighted that it’s possible to opt out of these programs, but that in itself is an issue. Why should drivers need to opt out of something they don’t know is happening?

The process can also be complex. Navigating the infotainment systems (the most common way to turn off these options) can be overwhelming. 

However, as more people become aware of this situation, there will also be more education. So, tutorials, guides, and such are becoming more common. 

And that’s how we come full circle. Car owners are now increasingly worried about these consequences. 

One study by Market Watch revealed that 65% of car owners are rethinking buying a new car due to privacy issues. 87% of owners believe that companies should delete upon request.

Moreover, 71% of owners are considering buying older cars just to have less technology and less vulnerability. 

It’s a phenomenon that’s not only happening with data. People are also holding on to their cars for longer, as new cars are expensive. This data problem only makes us feel vulnerable, watched, and without control of our cars, and that’s not the idea of driving. 

What will happen in the future is a big question, but there’s no doubt that data, or the lack thereof, will be a part of it.