By Chris Isidore, NCS
(NCS) — The day earlier than Philip Siefke went purchasing for a brand new car insurance coverage, he occurred to hit his brakes arduous whereas driving. Not 24 hours later, when he priced a coverage with Progressive, he was shocked to discover the insurer already knew about that mundane expertise.
“I’m like, how the eff did they have my information?” Siefke mentioned. “I was pissed.”
He known as Progressive and demanded to know the way the insurer had such detailed details about his driving habits. The info got here from Toyota, a rep defined to the incredulous Siefke.
“She said, ‘Probably you signed up for a research project, and it’s coming from your telemetry that’s in your car,’” Siefke mentioned. When he protested that he’d accomplished no such factor, “she said, ‘Oh yeah, you did. Just about everybody does.’”
About 90% of recent automobiles on the street gather info on the driving habits of whoever is behind the wheel, in accordance to Telemetry, an automotive strategic advisory agency. Many automakers promote that info to third events like insurance corporations.
Car consumers do have to agree to permit the gathering and sale of their knowledge—however that settlement is commonly buried deep within the high quality print of the paperwork individuals signal once they purchase the car, a part of the sheaf of papers about costs, mortgage phrases and warranties.
“Technically, they had permission,” mentioned Sam Abuelssamid, auto analyst with Telemetry. “It’s something that people should be aware of, but are not.”
Most individuals don’t know they’re agreeing to the sale of their knowledge, mentioned John Yanchunis, an legal professional at Morgan and Morgan whom Siefke employed to sue Toyota, Progressive and a 3rd occasion-knowledge supplier in April 2025.
“If you go to buy a car, you have a single focus, right? The price,” Yanchunis mentioned.
“They don’t give people that choice to see what’s going to happen with this data at the time of the acquisition of the product. They bury it. And why do people bury things? Because they don’t want consumers to know what they’re doing.”
The assortment and sale of driving knowledge is widespread throughout the automotive trade, the Federal Trade Commission famous in a 2024 warning to shoppers. The auto corporations, nevertheless, say this knowledge is collected with the intent to use the knowledge to shield drivers.
Cars now ‘powerful data-gobbling machines’
Industry commerce teams just like the Alliance for Automotive Innovation defend the gathering of driving knowledge. It says automakers use these packages to present info that assist automobiles’ correct functioning and enhance security. For instance, by alerting the automaker if the car has a problem that wants servicing.
“No, your car isn’t spying… it’s keeping you safe,” the Alliance titled its 2023 statement “Yes, your vehicle is generating and transmitting certain safety data. That’s by design.”
Consumer advocacy teams and the FTC, nevertheless, flag privateness issues.
“Car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines,” mentioned a report from the Mozilla Foundation, a expertise privateness curiosity group, which characterised the auto trade as “the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.”
In its 2024 shopper warning, the FTC wrote that “cars can collect a lot of data about people. This data could be sensitive…and its collection, use, and disclosure can threaten consumers’ privacy and financial welfare.”
Although the FTC mentioned it has been monitoring this difficulty for years, the company has introduced just one case in opposition to a company. In an order resolved simply final month, the FTC prohibited General Motors and its OnStar service from promoting this sort of knowledge for 5 years “without adequately notifying consumers and obtaining their affirmative consent.”
There was no monetary penalty for GM, which mentioned it had discontinued the follow of promoting the knowledge it collects to third events a yr earlier than the FTC order. The company famous that this system “was created to promote safer driving behavior, (but) we ended that program due to customer feedback.”
For Siefke’s lawyer, Yanchunis, it’s not a query of security; it’s about each privateness and knowledgeable consent.
“People should have the right to decide what they want to share with third parties, and they should not have those privacy rights taken from them without choice,” he mentioned.
Siefke feels he didn’t get that selection, and that he ended up paying for it.
Last January, regardless of his reservations, Siefke moved ahead with a Progressive coverage that value lower than $300 a month. With a very good driving report that included no tickets in nearly a decade and no accidents because the Nineties, he thought he’d keep a very good fee.
But when it got here time to renew his coverage six months later, his fee had jumped to greater than $400 a month with no rationalization.
Meanwhile, the case he filed in opposition to Toyota, Progressive, and the third-occasion knowledge company continues to be pending. It was moved from the courts to arbitration—Siefke had additionally unknowingly agreed to arbitrate any disputes when he purchased the car.
Toyota wouldn’t touch upon ongoing litigation however mentioned it solely sells driving info to third events “except when the customer provides consent and directs Toyota Motors North America to do so.” Progressive didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Meanwhile, Yanchunis expects the widespread knowledge assortment to proceed. He recalled what Nineteen Thirties prison Willie Sutton mentioned when somebody requested why he robbed banks: “That’s where the money is.”
“In the 21st century, we’re where the money is. Information, data, that’s the money,” Yanchunis mentioned. “Companies harvest it, aggregate it, make money off it. And look, I understand that. But again, it comes back to choice: People ought to have the right to choose what’s being taken from them.”
The-NCS-Wire
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