Common Motors introduced on Wednesday that it is going to be discontinuing OnStar Good Driver, an elective program that supplied customers with information about their driving habits, throughout all of its automobiles. This resolution comes after complaints arose relating to privateness violations and considerations over how person data was being shared with information analytics firms LexisNexis and Verisk. Good Driver customers might be unenrolled from this system and the software program might be faraway from GM automobiles.
The New York Instances reported that LexisNexis and Verisk shared private information with insurance coverage firms as a part of the Good Driver program. Some GM automobile house owners weren’t conscious that they’d consented to this system or that their insurance coverage charges had elevated on account of it. Detailed data on drivers’ habits, comparable to fast accelerations and exhausting braking, was used to create a danger rating for insurance coverage firms to make use of in growing extra customized insurance coverage protection, in accordance with LexisNexis spokesman Dean Carney.
Regardless of being marketed as an elective service, there have been customers who had been unaware that they had been signed up for Good Driver. GM acknowledged that they’re engaged on enhanced privateness controls to offer higher transparency, however didn’t disclose specifics on how these controls will function. The Good Driver program was initially marketed as a manner to assist drivers cut back put on and tear on their automobiles and promote safer driving habits. It could report information on whole miles pushed, exhausting braking incidents, late night time drives, and extra.
Previous to GM’s announcement to discontinue this system, automobile house owners had begun warning one another on numerous on-line boards to disable Good Driver attributable to considerations about potential will increase in insurance coverage charges linked to the information it collected. The choice to finish OnStar Good Driver highlights the rising considerations surrounding information sharing and privateness within the automotive trade, as extra automobiles change into related and gather information on drivers’ behaviors. It additionally underscores the necessity for higher transparency and management over how person information is used and shared in a lot of these packages.