General Motors spying on their customers

[CloudWatcher]

Last edited Tue Oct 23, 2018, 06:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Every minute for three months, GM secretly gathered data on 90,000 drivers' radio-listening habits and locations

On September 12th, GM's director of global digital transformation Saejin Park gave a presentation to the Association of National Advertisers in which he described how the company had secretly gathered data on the radio-listening habits of 90,000 GM owners in LA and Chicago for three months in 2017, tracking what stations they listened to and for how long, and where they were at the time; this data was covertly exfiltrated from the cars by means of their built-in wifi.

The company says it never sold this data, but the presentation to the advertising execs was clearly designed to elicit bids for it.

...

"We sampled (the behavior) every minute just because we could," Park explained.

Sheesh. I think maybe some additional privacy legislation is needed.


--- Update Update Update Update Update ---

According to this article: GM tracked radio listening habits for 3 months: Here's why
The GM customers opted-in to participate and the results were aggregated and anonymized appropriately. The original article (that I quoted) appears now to be excessively alarmist and a good example of really bad reporting. Apologies for not researching this better before posting!

[Sherman A1]

1. I agree that it is time for some serious privacy legislation

they would be exceptionally interested in my NPR listening habit I suppose.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. meanwhile, don't buy spymobiles

Don't buy vehicles which can be used to spy on you.

Don't buy products that spy on you.

Don't support companies that spy on you.

[global1]

3. Don't Buy From GM....nt

[CloudWatcher]

4. it's the precedent I don't like ...

I don't care about them knowing my radio listening habits, but "just because we could" sounds like they're prepared to record any/everything they can get their hands on ... think GPS logs.

[saidsimplesimon]

5. Roadside assistance and

police reporting, on nifty built in device consumers pay for. George Orwell was behind our times.

[FSogol]

6. I hate to break it to you, but do you happen to own a cell phone by any chance?

[CloudWatcher]

11. Last I checked, AT&T didn't sell my information to the highest bidder

They just shared it wholesale with the NSA and all the other govt agencies that wanted it.

[FSogol]

12. 75%* of the apps on your phone are tracking you and selling the data. n/t

* Probably a conservative estimate

[CloudWatcher]

15. No, I don't buy that statistic ...

Maybe for some kinds of "tracking" but (for example) on iOS you have to opt-in to allow an application to access location services and know where you are physically located.

[defacto7]

27. That's why I fake my GPS

[MiniMe]

13. Even TV's have this kind of technology now

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Eventually, they'll be up to the efficiency of Google, Facebook, and Amazon tracking...

There was already a case years ago about the FBI listening in to mobsters planning a hit through OnStar. I don't remember how it turned out, but this is now the world we are living in. And look what Tesla can do, to say nothing of you phone.

Personally, I wish Congress would get its head out of its collective ass and deal with this stuff, but I don't have much of a problem with anyone tracking radio listening habits as long as they don't get specific. Make all the lists you want about how many are listening to what-- just don't publish lists with names on it.

[fleur-de-lisa]

8. If you own any type of smart device, you best realize you are being monitored

for the purposes of marketing shit to you. EVERY. SINGLE. SMART. DEVICE.

I know people who don't believe their cable provider monitors what they watch on tv. Of course they do! If they can tell you over the phone what is wrong with your cable service, you best believe they know what you are watching.

I know people who still don't believe that their beloved Alexa or Echo is listening in, despite the numerous stories of just that happening.

Now this doesn't mean that I think this is being done to steal your money or control you (yet) but it sure as shit is being done for marketing and sales purposes. There is no tactic too low for corporations when it comes to selling shit!

[WeekiWater]

9. Take out you cell phone and give them a complaint call.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Sirus uses your data also.

Doubt me,just look at your e-mail.

As far as GM,their Satellite System On Star has been suspected for a long time. Had a Service Truck that used On Star ,twice some one from their so called emergency center,broke into the Radio Station I was listening too,asking if I had a Emergency Situation,scary crap my friends,especially at 3 am during a blizzard. Have to admit,was doing a fair share of cussing as I battled the Snow drifts and at times total white out.

[customerserviceguy]

23. Yeah, I've heard that about OnStar

One of many reasons I would never buy another GM vehicle.

[Wellstone ruled]

25. Sad to say,our trucks ,vans and other rigs

were all leased GM through GE Capital Leasing. When a few of us pulled the fuse to the Tracking System,G-Cap notified Corporate withing 48 hours. Yes,had to put the Fuses back.

[MineralMan]

14. If there is collectible data, there will be collection of it.

The cable company has data on my internet browsing, what channels my TV is tuned to, and how many devices in my home connect to their wifi router. What does it do with that data? I have no idea, but I'm sure it is used for some purpose.

Auto companies know a great deal about you and your automobile. They know exactly how fast you were going just before your accident and how long before it happened you applied the brakes. It knows what gear the transmission was in, what the throttle position was, and the steering angle of your front tires. It has all that information, and it can be retrieved after the accident. Who knows? You might need that info in your lawsuit for damages.

[CloudWatcher]

16. the 6th amendment

Not too happy with the computer in my car being used as evidence ... the right to confront your accusers is seriously impaired. E.g. we've fought a speeding ticket where the cop using his LIDAR gun simply didn't know how to use it correctly. But the assumption in court was that the "computer" was always correct.

Btw, there's an ISP in town that advertises that they don't record information about you. It's useful to know who is and isn't spying on you.

[hunter]

24. I don't have a cable company. I don't drive a twenty-first century smart car. My TV is stupid.

My ISP is local. They know me in real life. If they wanted to know something more about me than they already do they could just ask. I already trust them with my home phone and VISA card number. Whenever there's some problem I'll call them and they'll transfer me directly to the person who can fix it, should it not happen to be the person who answered the phone.

Netflix knows what I watch on Netflix. Google sees some of that too via Chromecast. (My quirky university educated independent movie and television industry fanatic kid set my wife and I up with both.)

Google watches my Chromebook as best it can, but with uBlock Origin installed marketing data collection is somewhat restricted.

The rest of my computers run Linux.

Other than DU and a few international news sites, I mostly surf technology, science, and engineering sites.

There's a bit of black electrical tape over the cameras of my Chromebook and laptop. My main desktop machine is deaf, dumb, and blind.

Judging by the internet advertising I see, I believe the Artificial Intelligence Marketing Cyber Gods (AIMCG) have tagged me as a queer mostly asexual PTSD military veteran, slightly paranoid, who works in a sewage treatment plant and is authorized to write purchase orders of $50,000 or more.

Okay, that's very likely me in the universe next door, but not this one.

In my universe prime I got stabbed through the heart, I jumped out of the car and died.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tapestry_%28episode%29

It's my great privilege to remain in this universe, a very dangerous fellow when I don't know what I'm doing,

[MineralMan]

26. OK...

[hunter]

29. I used to be a Comcast subscriber. Because everyone grown up has cable television, right?

And our house guests expect it.

Then I thought, why am I paying $49 a month to have all this garbage delivered to my house?

I pay our city less than that to have garbage and sewage taken away from our house. Flushing the toilet is amazingly inexpensive, especially as our wastewater is recycled rather than dumped.

Our television is a commercial free movie player, that's all it does. It plays DVDs and a single stream of DVD quality Netflix on an inexpensive unlimited medium speed DSL connection.

No cable, no satellite, no broadcast television.

Ninety percent of television news is crud. I'm a much happier person without it.

The only television commercials I see are those I choose to view posted here on DU, or those I suffer in various waiting rooms, most of which are something innocuous like the home, food, or pet channels.

Last time I suffered television news was in a hotel breakfast room, about a year and a half ago. CNN, not Fox, but it still sucked and I chose to ignore it.

[defacto7]

28. you sound like me...

[KWR65]

17. Privacy is a myth in the 21st Century

Unless you have no electronics at all and then live in a log cabin in Alaska with no electricity.

[CloudWatcher]

18. that's wouldn't be enough ...

And didn't drive a car at all (license plate tracking), or go outside (spy sats), or ....

But it's useful to know who's doing what. We can fight back ))

[Hekate]

19. I'm shocked, I tells ya, shocked, that a major corporation would use its built-in electronics to spy

...on its customers.

Actually, not in the least shocked. Disgusted, maybe, but not shocked. You could not pay me enough money to have Alexa or similar in my home.

[Progressive dog]

20. The 90,000 car owners gave consent

GM, with 10 million cars on the road, is one of the first automakers to undertake such a study. About 90,000 drivers in Los Angeles and Chicago agreed to participate in a "proof of concept" late last year. The data collected could possibly lead to more targeted radio advertising.

[CloudWatcher]

21. Interesting!

GM is careful with how it collects and uses the data, saying that customers who use connected services must first opt in by accepting GM's terms of use and its privacy statement, said GM's Cain.

"This data is then aggregated and anonymized and would represent the results over a very large sample size and would not include any personally identifiable information," said Cain.

Thanks, good to know. Original article was pretty off-target then.

ref: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2018/10/01/gm-radio-listening-habits-advertising/1424294002/

[Initech]

22. I listen to literally two radio stations.

Rest is either XM or MP3s from my phone. And I turn it off during the advertisements, I don't know what they are expecting to find.

[hunter]

30. My car radio is mostly useless.

If I'm lucky there will be something worth listening to on the local university public radio station. Maybe 30%. I contribute to that.

The rest of the radio spectrum is wasteland.

If I was Emperor of Earth I'd shut it all down.

Bring a case full of cassettes with you, sing your own songs, or drive in silence.

[Initech]

31. I'm lucky to have bluetooth on my car radio.

Bluetooth + my phone MP3 player means I never have to turn on AM or FM radio. Sirius occasionally has some good stuff but aside from KROQ I don't listen to hardly any commercial radio.