[backhill]

Progressive tracked mine for 6 months through the App. I drove like I normally drive and got a B+ rating and some savings. After the 6 months I deleted the application once it was over. It tracked hard stops and accelerations, how many times you looked at your phone screen and duration, and how many miles you traveled (more miles = inherently more risk in their algorithm). It definitely got me into the habit of not messing with my phone, even at stop lights.

You CAN go back and mark unfavorable trips as passenger or rideshare, etc and I did for some. After a while you just forget/don't care. I got tracked for 6 months and saved some money. No big deal.

[King Rudi]

Nope. Nope and Nope.

I'm not a fan of the wired in technology that is becoming more and more popular. I had an amazon dot for a bit. Thought it was kinda cool at first, then saw on the news where one had recorded a domestic assault/murder. The evidence that the dot recorded was used in the trial. I'm by no means a shady character but I have no desire to allow a company to record the goings on inside my home....unless I'm getting paid for it. The dot was gone about a month after having it. Aside from my asking it "Alexa, play Wu-Tang along with the faint moans of pleasure emanating from the bedroom and 43 year old rambling to himself whilst home alone, there really wasn't any data for them to use against me anyway.

As for the insurance end of this spectrum, I prefer to keep my insurance that I pay for, regardless of the scam factor. If my insurance company knew how I actually drive, no company would insure me.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Some companies are collecting data on us, even when they don't have a specific need to at the moment. They see the potential value in it and are willing to implement the infrastructure to collect and store it for future use, or sale. Personally, I find it a major invasion of privacy. I'm sure I've signed plenty of TOSs without reading them thoroughly and gave consent...all for the "convenience" or "service" that product provided me. Ever download an app and it asks for permission to access your phones mic and camera, even when the use of that app does not require those components of your device? I had one ask for those and it specifically included access to the photo gallery on my phone...the app had zero to do with photos. Why do they want to see my photos? How about for tracking purposes? Photos include time, date and GPS coordinates and with face recognition software, a photo could be used to identify individuals in specific places and at specific times...no, thank you.

You're assuming all apps are asking you permission to access other data which it doesn't need to do its primary function. And even if you say no to the pop up asking for permission to access specific things on your phone, you're just trusting that the developer is keeping their word.

That's why I brought up GDPR twice in this thread. The law was put out in Europe to establish rights of the individual in controlling how their own personal information is being access, used, and handled. That's why we need such a law here as companies have shown that they have zero regard over our data and will exploit it to only benefit them. All I need to do is point to the Equifax debacle as something that affected huge slews of people. And none of us had any say over how our own personal data is being protected or used.

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

You're assuming all apps are asking you permission to access other data which it doesn't need to do its primary function. And even if you say no to the pop up asking for permission to access specific things on your phone, you're just trusting that the developer is keeping their word.

That's why I brought up GDPR twice in this thread. The law was put out in Europe to establish rights of the individual in controlling how their own personal information is being access, used, and handled. That's why we need such a law here as companies have shown that they have zero regard over our data and will exploit it to only benefit them. All I need to do is point to the Equifax debacle as something that affected huge slews of people. And none of us had any say over how our own personal data is being protected or used.

No, I'm assuming they are all doing it to some extent. And, no, I don't trust a developer to not collect my data when I haven't given explicit permission.

The apps/permissions thing was brought up for those who don't know what's going on, and giving them something to think about and consider. Same goes for social media sites like Facebook, I'm sure most know by now it is sole purpose is to gather and sell user data.

Here's another example to consider. Ever have a verbal, in person discussion with someone and mention a product, only to see ads start popping up for that product? Guess what, it's not a coincidence. That's your phone/tablet/echo/dot/whatever mic listening, processing and selling.

I haven't read the GDPR, and I have no idea how effective it is in EU. But, yes, the US needs something to stop what is happening here.

Anyway, this has gone a bit OT, but I think it's relevant as any and all personal data that is collected with/out our knowledge is detrimental to us in the end. The small amount of benefit to us in trade is negligible.

[MPBK]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

No, I'm assuming they are all doing it to some extent. And, no, I don't trust a developer to not collect my data when I haven't given explicit permission.

The apps/permissions thing was brought up for those who don't know what's going on, and giving them something to think about and consider. Same goes for social media sites like Facebook, I'm sure most know by now it is sole purpose is to gather and sell user data.

Here's another example to consider. Ever have a verbal, in person discussion with someone and mention a product, only to see ads start popping up for that product? Guess what, it's not a coincidence. That's your phone/tablet/echo/dot/whatever mic listening, processing and selling.

I haven't read the GDPR, and I have no idea how effective it is in EU. But, yes, the US needs something to stop what is happening here.

Anyway, this has gone a bit OT, but I think it's relevant as any and all personal data that is collected with/out our knowledge is detrimental to us in the end. The small amount of benefit to us in trade is negligible.

If I'm understanding how this discussion (GDPR and apps like google and facebook collecting data without us knowing) relates to the topic at hand (insurance wanting to know our driving habits)...
Is it the point that, since those apps are already collecting data and they will sell to insurance, with of without our permission, that we should open wide and enjoy the rape and maybe we get thrown a bone at the end, however small of a bone that may be?

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by MPBK

I'm I'm understanding how this discussion (GDPR and apps like google and facebook collecting data without us knowing) relates to the topic at hand (insurance wanting to know our driving habits)...
Is it the point that, since those apps are already collecting data and they will sell to insurance, with of without our permission, that we should open wide and enjoy the rape and maybe we get thrown a bone at the end, however small of a bone that may be?

Yes. I haven't looked at the terms you have to agree to when you sign on to having your insurance company monitor your driving habits as I will never do so. But I wouldn't be surprised there is a clause that all captured data becomes the property of the insurance company.

GDPR puts in gates which makes the entity collecting your data to provide clear guidance as to what is being collected and how it's going to be used. Anything outside of that requires your expressed permission. You control how your data is being collected and used. Look at Facebook. Many people are not aware that anything you load up into Facebook is their property now for them to do as they wish. People thinking Facebook is generous in providing the services they do to for free is naive. They're doing it so they can collect data on you and sell it of to do other types of modeling to use for other sales opportunities. And to close the off topic slant of this, I wonder how many people complaining about the insurance companies using these monitoring tools for rate discounts have other spying devices in their homes such as any Nest, Alexa, Siri, etc product.

[Emilime75]

Edited/deleted...just beating a dead horse at this point.

[MPBK]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Yes. I haven't looked at the terms you have to agree to when you sign on to having your insurance company monitor your driving habits as I will never do so. But I wouldn't be surprised there is a clause that all captured data becomes the property of the insurance company.

GDPR puts in gates which makes the entity collecting your data to provide clear guidance as to what is being collected and how it's going to be used. Anything outside of that requires your expressed permission. You control how your data is being collected and used. Look at Facebook. Many people are not aware that anything you load up into Facebook is their property now for them to do as they wish. People thinking Facebook is generous in providing the services they do to for free is naive. They're doing it so they can collect data on you and sell it of to do other types of modeling to use for other sales opportunities. And to close the off topic slant of this, I wonder how many people complaining about the insurance companies using these monitoring tools for rate discounts have other spying devices in their homes such as any Nest, Alexa, Siri, etc product.

None of that is new. And it's not accurate.
It's not the apps asking you for permission. Otherwise, instead of popping up a message that says "Can I use your camera", they'd say "do you want to win $1M?" Yes or No?
Apps need to ask the OS for access to the camera. It's the OS (Apple or Google) popping that message to you for your permission. So, yes, all legit apps need to ask for your permission. That says nothing about what they do with your data once you granted permission.
AFAIK, GDPR only sets a legal basis for you to sue them if you find out that they are not complying with the rules. GDPR doesn't prevent anything.

[OkieSnuffBox]

GDPR.............the reason you see that cookie warning pop up on websites everywhere now.