GM's OnStar Accused Of Unauthorized Collection, Sales Of Private Data
Recently it has been revealed that owners of GM vehicles equipped with OnStar, whether subscribed to the service or not, risk the involuntary disclosure of private and sensitive data collected from the vehicle’s GPS unit.
A strong backlash ensued as critics accused OnStar of selling private information including vehicle speed, location, and seatbelt usage, to law enforcement, insurance companies, and traffic surveyors.
OnStar responded with a press release regarding the matter. Joanne Finnorn, Vice President of Onstar Subscriber Services, wrote a statement assuring that, “Onstar will maintain a two-way connection to their vehicle unless they ask us not to do so… This connection may provide us with the capability to alert vehicle occupants about severe weather conditions or mandatory evacuations… If the customer requests us to turn off the two-way connection, we will do so as we have always done, and that is to honor customer’s requests… We have never sold any personally identifiable information to any third party.”
[Source: Autoblog]
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