They say that the cars of tomorrow will be like "smartphones on wheels," and when it comes to modern electric vehicles in particular, many of them are already there. But that also means that cars are as adept at collecting your personal data as any of your favorite gadgets—and not necessarily without any guardrails around where that data goes. Now, thanks in large part to reporting by the New York Times, two U.S. senators are urging the government to crack down on how car data gets collected and sold.
Months ago, the NYT's Kashmir Hill—herself a Chevrolet Bolt owner—uncovered how her car and others were collecting data around driving habits, braking, acceleration and more, and then selling that data to a broker that worked with insurance companies. From there, insurance quotes (which are already skyrocketing nationwide) were tailored to drivers' personal habits, often without their knowledge or with their "consent" buried in pages of fine print.
Read Article