Your Car Is Spying On You

Under the Hood, with Big Brother (autoweek.com)

While AutoWeek was testing a Chevy Malibu Maxx, the car “thought” it was going to crash so it made a call to OnStar. OnStar called the vehicle’s cell phone to see if the driver was hurt, and AutoWeek had to tell OnStar that they did not have an accident. The only thing they were doing was running a slalom.

If you have a newer car, it has a silver box that is spying on you, and you can’t shut it off or manipulate it. It records data every 5 seconds while your car is running. If it it thinks is a crash is imminent, it will save the data for up to 250 ignition cycles and probably make a call to your service provider.

Can this data be used against you by the police or your insurance company if you have an accident? There’s currently not a clear answer. It’s not even clear who owns the data – you or your service provider.

via Autoblog.