It’s one thing when an insurance company asks you to install an appliance that tracks your driving habits. You can qualify for rate discounts. But what if the car manufacturer installs an app that sends the data to the insurer?
“App Tracks Driving Habits,” The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2018 B3. Mitsubishi installs app and offers to arrange to send data to insurers.
Again, this looks like someone else stepping in and trying to make money from sharing your data, not theirs. Will this, as this article says, lead to insurers economically forcing you to share this information? How you drive is one thing; but this would also include where you go, and when. And can be tied to your credit rating, ZIP code, age, gender, etc.
What’s this data worth to you? More or less than what it is worth to Mitsubishi and the insurance companies? What will they do with this data once they have it? Will they keep it secure? Do they do this on cars sold in Europe or, for that matter, Japan? Both countries have significantly stronger privacy protections than the US.
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