Your New Car Might Be Tattling On You To Insurance Companies

Hyperspeed? That's gonna cost ya extra, Han.

You don't need to own the Millennium Falcon, but if you own a car that's been made recently in this millennium, it might be ratting out your nerferder driving habits to the Empire (insurance companies).

Your New Car Might Be Spying On You

Car companies are selling data of your driving habits to insurance companies, who then jack up your premium. Sound illegal? It might be.

Massachusetts senator Ed Markey has posited that the practice could be "deceptive" under the Federal Trade Commission Act. But thus far, no action has been taken.

How do the car companies do it? They get you to use free apps. And since we never read the fine print, we don't see that they inform you of their intent to sell data to "third parties"...like insurance companies.

A common app that's marketed as helping you "...become a better driver" is OnStar Smart Driver, which tracks incidents of hard braking, hard accelerating, and driving over 80mph.

The good news is that you can unenroll any time, the bad news is you might not even know you signed up: car dealers get a bonus if THEY sign YOU up for the app. You'll never know unless you scour the fine print.

It's not just one or two car companies doing this. Most of the major car companies are doing it. BuT iF oNe CaR cOmPaNy JuMpEd oFf A bRiDgE wOuLd TeH oThEr CaR cOmPaNiEs dO iT?! If there was money to be made, then yes they absolutely would.

So either read the fine print, or drive like you're the most boring person to ever play Grand Theft Auto.

Car manufacturers selling cars that spy on your driving habits, then selling that data to insurance companies, who then raise your rates: today's Sign of the Apocalypse.

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H/T NY Times