California-Privacy

A report from a California watchdog group says that people should be able to keep their privacy when their cars are connected.

Some people say that connected cars can have privacy issues for people who use them. A new report from a consumer group says that new rules in California could be good examples for the rest of the country.

Claims made in the report say that California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the industry are working together on a plan to let data from cars be used for insurance pricing, even though California has a ban on the practice.

In response to a report from consumer group Consumer Watchdog, the California Department of Insurance said the following:

In California, there are strict rules about telematics, and Commissioner Lara will not bend when it comes to protecting consumer data, privacy, and fair prices. Proposition 103, which was passed by the voters in 2008, protects people who buy insurance. Since 2009, California has only allowed vehicle data to be used to figure out how many miles a driver has actually driven, and only in a way that protects the driver's privacy.

While you can turn off location data on your cell phone, there isn't yet a "opt-out" feature for your car. By 2023, California will be the first state in the country to allow people to turn off precise geo-location.

Consumer Watchdog says that new rules set to come into effect this year under Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act, should stop insurance companies and carmakers from using precise geolocation without the permission of the people who use them. In the report, the California Privacy Protection Agency learned about a number of privacy violations. The report was shown to the agency at public hearings on Wednesday.

Daniele Ritter, an APCIA assistant vice president, said that California has very strong privacy laws. "Insurers in California have been following a strict set of privacy rules and laws for a long time. These rules and laws were in place even before the

Consumer Privacy Act and other privacy laws were passed in California." It's important to note that insurers can't get into an individual's car data without the person who owns the car giving them permission to do so. The insurance industry wants California to be like every other state in the country and let insurers offer usage-based insurance to California drivers like they can in other states.

Some of the problems that were found in the report:

The 13 top automakers that the US General Accounting Office looked at said that they were collecting, using, and sharing data about the location and operations of connected cars.

There are a lot of car companies that have the right to keep track of and market their products by collecting data. These companies include General Motors, Toyota, and Ford.

Car companies are working with software companies to put ads right on the dashboard. A lot of people use apps for things like Domino's and IHOP because they get information from Chevy's OnStar Service.

In addition, Telenav, a software company that makes in-car advertising software, promotes its "freemium" model, which has been used by streaming services like Hulu and Spotify. In exchange for free services, users will see ads. Pop-up car ads could bring in an average of $30 a year for each car. Telenav said there is a lot of money to be made from the $212 billion that commuters spend while driving.

California's insurance market is at the heart of the most recent debate about the use of telematics, which is data that cars send back to the insurance company when they drive. Elon Musk and Lara started a Twitter war over the use of telematics data collected by cars to set insurance rates. Lara vowed to protect "consumer data, privacy, and fair rates." However, an investigation by Consumer Watchdog reportedly found that Lara is working with insurance companies privately on a proposal to allow electronic surveillance in California once he has the "political cover" to do so, which is why he wants to do it.

Currently, Proposition 103 doesn't allow telematics to be used to figure out how much you pay for your car insurance.