this video was brought to you by brilliant hi welcome to another episode of Cold Fusion car companies are collecting your driving data including location acceleration speed facial expressions and even sexual activity and they do this to either deny warranty claims or to pass off to insurance companies to raise your premium your car could be spying on you and at least one automaker is sharing that information with insurance companies a Henry County woman learned it was happening to her when her insurance bills skyrocketed and now she's warning others about the issue her car is you essentially
turning into a computer and collecting data on you as you drive on June 8th 2024 Brian was driving his 2023 Toyota Corolla gr on the highway he then noticed that something was wrong smoke started pouring into the interior Brian pulled over to take a look and see what was going on and before he knew it the front end of the car was completely in Flames some of the damage was covered by insurance but the remaining cost was to be covered in a warranty claim by Toyota after all the car was only 1 year old and
just caught fire for no apparent reason but to his horror Toyota denies his claim why according to their reply his car had sent data packets to headquarters indicating that he'd driven in excess of 85 mph at some point during his ownership among other excuses They concluded that they couldn't provide any assistance due to his irresponsible driving this was despite the fire having nothing to do with how fast it driven the car at a completely separate time for context the gr Corolla is a rally car which can do 0 to 60 mph in under 5 Seconds
this scenario sounds like a comic relief b-plot in a dystopian sci-fi movie but this is very real and is happening today today we dig into the frankly insane hidden tactics of car companies that we all should be aware of you are watching C Fusion TV [Music] in 2023 there was a review of the Privacy standards of 25 major car brands by the Mozilla Foundation the results were a complete disaster 25 out of 25 Brands failed to meet consumer privacy standards according to the ABC Australia the report revealed that murky and vague privacy policies allowed Brands
like BMW Ford Toyota Tesla Kia and Subaru to collect highly sensitive and personal data shockingly this includes information on sexual activity immigration status race facial expressions weight Health genetic information and driving locations and unfortunately these companies can potentially sell this data to third parties and the data is being collected by sensors microphones cameras car apps the phones and devices that drivers connect to their cars and Company websites the report named niss as the worst offender as they collected data on quote sexual activity Health diagnosis data and genetic data but strangely no one knows exactly how
they got this information niss say that they can share and sell consumers quote preferences characteristics psychological Trends predispositions Behavior attitudes intelligence abilities and aptitudes end quote Nissan or Nissan if you're American can give this information to to data Brokers law enforcement and other third parties the report also called out tera's privacy policies as quote a near incomprehensible Galaxy end quot spread across 12 separate documents Mozilla asked the companies about encryption of the data and only one of the brands Mercedes even responded Jen C Ridder of Milla was stunned by the findings and would conclude quote
all new cars today are privacy Nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information end quote it's pretty insane already but it goes deeper in March of 2024 the New York Times released a bombshell investigation of how car companies are selling driver data to insurance companies data such as where they're driving how fast they're going how hard they accelerate and step on the brakes pretty much everything the companies involved include General Motors or GM Honda Mitsubishi Kia Ford Hyundai and Subaru all all to varying degrees as you'll soon see the knee-jerk argument is that
this is being done for the safety and benefit of drivers car manufacturers will always try to hammer this point home and at a stretch if you squint your eyes perhaps you could see it that way but if we're being real it turns out that these car companies are making millions of selling your driver data to Brokers and onto insurance companies your insurance premium could start skyrocketing and you have no idea why the last thing you'd expect is that your humble car was snitching on you to a large corporation the New York Times gave an example
of Ken Dal a 65-year-old careful driver who had never been responsible for an accident suddenly in 2022 he got a rude shock when his car insurance cost jumped by 21% after shopping around he realized something strange other car insurance packages were suddenly unusually high for him too wondering what was going on he asked an insurance agent and he told him the real answer he'd got in a bad report from Lexus Nexus Now who the heck is that well they're one of those third party data Breakers and where did Lexus Nexus get the data from from
General Motors who made Mr D's Chevy bolt he dug a bit deeper and got his hands on the actual report from Nexus Lexus it was over 130 pages long detailing every move that he and his wife had made 640 trips it included when he was speeding break sharply or accelerated sharply the time they set off for a trip and the the time the trip concluded Mr D will tell the New York Times quote it felt like a betrayal the taking information that I didn't realize was going to be shared and screwing without insurance end quote
hundreds of pages hundreds of pages this is my Lexus Nexus consumer disclosure report I'm appalled hundreds of pages of data on Tama Clay's Lexus Nexus credit report from her Chevy Camaro and GM shared 63 of those entries with data Brokers so the pipeline is this the raw data from your car is collected sold to data brokers who analyze it and then send it to your insurance company all without you having a clue some car companies do sell the information directly and some do have opt-in Clauses but many don't and are on by default without the
driver's knowing furthermore these drivers aren't aware that their data is being shared with third parties even for those drivers who opt in on data collection to improve their driving they innocently think it's going to help them become a better driver there's still no obvious indication that this data is going to third parties a lot of the time it's hidden behind the fine print of legal jargon for sports car enthusiasts it's a nightmare the same New York time report shines a light on one Corvette owner he took his car out for a spin on a professional
racetrack his car's data was then filled with rapid acceleration events potentially ruining his car insurance score another Cadillac owner had had enough after he was denied car insurance by seven companies and of course his Lexus Nexus report was to blame quote I don't know the definition of heartbreak my passenger's head isn't hitting the dash same with acceleration I'm not peeling out I'm not sure how the car defines that I don't feel I'm driving aggressively or dangerously end quote he finally did get car insurance but for twice the price he wanted to keep his name anonymous
because he had plans to sue GM KIA Subaru and Mitsubishi also shared data with Lexus Nexus who has now collected data from over 10 million cars Ford Honda and Hyundai are also selling driver data but to another data broker called V risk Subaru states that it only shares odometer data according to the New York Times and Ford denies the claims saying it was only partnering with Lexus Nexus to quote explore ways to support consumers they go on to state that they send driver data directly to insurance companies only with explicit consent Kia Mitsubishi Hyundai Honda
and Acura all have driving feedback apps where drivers can opt in to monitor how well they're performing on the road but what drivers may not know is that this data is getting passed onto you guessed it either Lexus Nexus or V risk so once again Insurance can potentially be affected as a result of their driving habits without them necessarily knowing Toyota is no angel in all of this Rafi Alam from the Australian consumer advocacy group Choice state quote when we looked at Toyota's privacy policy we found that these connected service features will collect data such
as fuel levels odometer readings vehicle location and driving data as well as personal information like phone numbers and email addresses end quote and all of this isn't to mention the risks of data breaches unfortunately it's just a sign of the times data collecting technology is becoming ever more common in newer cars and much of this can't be opted out of most new cars today will have some kind of location tracking technology included but does it have to be this way critics argue that these data collection practices are non-transparent hidden Clauses in massive complicated contracts aren't
good enough California's privacy regulator Senator Edward Mar have called for investigations into these data practices he questions whether this violates consumer protection laws quote The Internet of Things is really intruding into the lives of all Americans if there is now a collusion between automakers and insurance companies using data from an unknowing car owner that raises their insurance rates that's from my perspective a potential per se violation of section five of the Federal Trade Commission act end quote the Federal Trade Commission Act is a federal law that protects the public against unfair and deceptive business practices
overall the intersection of connected Car Technology and insurance rates poses important questions about transparency and consumer rights our cars can't just be spying on us without our knowledge and writing it all in the fine print hidden Within Walls of legal jargon isn't good enough either it should be clear that there's a need for more robust consumer protections to ensure that drivers are fully aware of what data has been collected how that data is being used and how it can Impact Insurance costs to be fair driver data can be used for good things such as faster
emergency response times and predictive maintenance but the potential for abuse is massive we need to stop and think do these benefits outweigh the risks when it comes down to it we've been driving cars that have been offline for over a century with very little issue as a society we're only just beginning to Grapple with how important our personal data is the fact that data harvesting has made its way into the Auto industry should be enough to give anyone pause I think it's about time we started giving control back to Consumers now there are no federal
laws requiring that automakers have privacy protections for their owners or cyber security protections on their vehicles but the question is is what have consumers opted into do they understand what's being collected about them and then who is the Arbiter of accuracy because anybody can drive your car you can loan your car out to other people we also need the opportunity as consumers to opt into that and to say I give you permission to monetize my data and here's how I give you permission to use it to close things off let's go back to the Toyota
scandal at the beginning of this episode denying a fire claim because the driver at some point during the history of his ownership of the car exceeded 85 mph seems absurd should the owner have been driving an excess of 85 mph probably not but punishing him for it in the most orwellian way possible that seems a bit much but I know there'll be people out there that say spying on drivers like this ultimately keeps people safe but I think in reality companies are just trying to find increasingly clever ways to make money but what do you
guys think I'd love to hear your thoughts below cars spying on us obviously isn't great but what if you wanted to learn something more positive such as the latest trends in the automotive industry well fortunately there's a fun and easy way to learn about that with brilliant.org brilliant is where you learn by doing with thousands of interactive lessons and maths science data analytics programming and AI they have a course on maximizing electric vehicle value where you can dig into and explore all the latest data and Trends in the EV space each lesson on brilliant allows
you to play with Concepts a method proven to be six times more effective than watching lecture videos plus all content on brilliant is crafted by teachers researchers and professionals from MIT cowtech Duke Microsoft Google and more learn at your own pace to brush up on a project for work or just for your own self-development and curiosity to try everything brilliant has to offer for a full 30 days visit brilliant.org coldfusion you'll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription anyway that's about it from me if you did like this episode feel free to subscribe to
Cold Fusion there's plenty of interesting stuff on here so my name is toogo and you have been watching cold fusion and I'll catch you again soon for the next episode cheers guys have a good one [Music] [Music] cold fusion it's new thinking
