Insurers Aim To Track Drivers Through Smartphones

TheWindBringeth · Sep 5, 2014

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyol...rers-apps-become-a-window-to-monitor-drivers/

You may have noticed that smartphone apps are gradually becoming sensors for higher authorities: local governments can use Waze to keep an eye on traffic, while employers can tap Fitbit’s app to monitor staff health. Now the car insurance company Progressive is working on a smartphone app that will let it monitor how well its customers are driving, while rival Allstate is already testing an app in several states to tracks drivers’ habits too.
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Usage-based insurance like this may sound a little Orwellian, but a global study by consulting firm Ptolemus calls it a “rapidly expanding phenomenon” which will reap $80 billion in premium revenue by 2020. “Research indicates that the smartphone will increasingly become an effective entry-level device to collect driving behavior data,” the study says. Pratt and others say this form of monitoring is also bound to bleed into other coverage areas like health, thanks to the proliferation of wearable activity trackers and health monitoring devices.
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http://www.computerworld.com/articl...to-track-driver-behavior-via-smartphones.html

Agero, one of the nation's largest suppliers of roadside safety software and services to automakers and insurance companies, said its new UBI telematics suite will transmit to insurers the information needed to offer discounts to good drivers, penalize others, and send alerts to emergency assistance service providers.
The UBI suite consists of the PolicyPal app, which tracks driving habits in real time, and Auto Crash Notification (ACN), which automatically notifies emergency services within moments of an accident.
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Nate Cardozo, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said technology like Agero's UBI suite that automatically sends data to insurers and automakers should raise red flags among consumers because "they have no way of finding out" how the data is being shared.
"Automakers are not required to disclose that information, and there's no federal mandate for it," Cardozo said. "Take Ford Sync, for example. In its terms of service, it says it's collecting location data and call data if you use Sync to dictate emails."
In another example, in 2011 GM's OnStar emergency notification and roadside assistance service began collecting data about the health of vehicles' mechanical and electrical systems.
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The program was designed to help GM improve its own service by enabling the detection of mechanical problems or upcoming service needs. OnStar is also used to track stolen vehicles. However, GM shared data with third parties, according to Dominique Bonte, a vice president and practice director at ABI Research.
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Edit: I see Lotuseclat79 posted a related link in the earlier thread: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...r-insurance-by-giving-up-your-privacy.367470/

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Insurers Aim To Track Drivers Through Smartphones

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Insurers Aim To Track Drivers Through Smartphones

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