Posted on 06/11/2024 7:16:13 AM PDT by george76
Popular smartphone apps used to track people’s location and provide weather reports may hand over driving data to a firm that sells the information to insurance companies for the purposes of setting rates for unsuspecting motorists...
apps Life360, MyRadar and Gas Buddy are providing user data to an Allstate-owned company, Arity, which computes the numbers to create a “driving score” that takes into account any risky behavior behind the wheel...
That information is then sold to other insurance firms — with user consent — which set rates for their customers
...
Life360, which is used by parents to keep track of their kids’ locations; Gas Buddy, which helps drivers find gas stations that offer the cheapest fuel; and MyRadar, which tracks storms and inclement weather, all have opt-in driving analysis features that rely on sensor and motion data transmitted by smartphones, according to the report.
The opt-in feature for Gas Buddy gives users information on the fuel efficiency for their drives — a technology that is “powered by Arity.”
...
Life360 offers a similar opt-in function which collects drivers’ geolocation and mobile device sensor data and then shares it with Arity “so they can work with participating insurance companies to better understand how you behave behind the wheel and make offers based on how you drive
...
Kathleen Lomax, a New Jersey resident who paid for a $100 annual subscription to Life360 in order to track the location of her husband and her two 18-year-old daughters, told the Times that she canceled the app when she learned that it was selling users’ driving data.
...
drivers reported that their insurance rates went up after the car companies from which they bought their vehicle sent data about their driving behavior to issuers without their knowledge.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
ANOTHER REASON WHY I DO NOT HAVE CELL PHONE.
Also “ Please be patient as we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes” (as compared to what? 3AM Saturday morning?)
It really means “We’re too cheap to hire more than two phone reps who speak English as a fourth language which they only learned by watching Satellite TV reruns of the Flintsones, for the entire customer base”
If our call were really important, they’d treat us better.
And then the immediate population or email “”How would you rate our service?” when you’re done.
Obvious question - how does the phone app differentiate when you are a driver vs a passenger?
I hate otto-corrupt.
Pop-up not population.
Johnny Fever!!
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