For privacy, you may wish to avoid apps powered by Arity
(GasBuddy, Life360, MyRadar, etc.)

*These apps track your driving habits and sell that information*
*to insurance companies* (funded by AllState)
<https://www.techspot.com/news/103416-apps-track-driving-habits-sell-information-insurance-companies.html>

"The New York Times dropped a bomb on drivers of connected
vehicles: manufacturers collect and sell their driving data
to insurance companies, which use the information to set
rates for individual drivers. Now, a new report shows that
this type of data collection is more ubiquitous than even
dystopian-minded privacy advocates might have realized.
Information about driving habits is being collected by apps
that are only tangentially related to automobiles. You may
already have one installed on your phone.
Examples include Life360, MyRadar, and GasBuddy."

Life360 is popular with parents who want to keep track of their families.
MyRadar offers weather forecasts. GasBuddy can help you find cheap fuel.

Apparently the underlying tracking engine is Arity.
<https://arity.com/industries/mobile-apps/>

"Arity uses the data to create driving scores for tens of millions
of people & then markets the scores to auto insurance companies."

See also:
*We explore the apps that are quietly tracking drivers' habits.*
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/briefing/driving-apps-insurance-tracking.html>

*Carmakers are sharing driving habits with insurance companies*
<https://www.techspot.com/news/102225-many-connected-vehicles-share-driving-habits-insurers-unbeknownst.html>

On 2024-06-17, Andrew <andrew@spam.net> wrote:
> For privacy, you may wish to avoid apps powered by Arity
> (GasBuddy, Life360, MyRadar, etc.)

In the case of MyRadar, this feature is opt-in and not used by 99% of
users:

"The only time this data sharing is enabled is if you chose to enable
the "MyDrives" feature when you first installed MyRadar. Only 1% of our
users actually have this turned on, but we are very up-front with
telling users that telematics data is shared with Arity on the initial
consent screens, it's not buried under a privacy policy somewhere... so
most people do not enable the feature.

To see if you have enabled the "MyDrives" feature, start MyRadar and
pull down the "Extended Forecast" up at the top of the screen with your
thumb. Then, scroll all the way down tot he bottom of that screen and
look to see if you have a big green button that says "Enable MyDrives".
If that button is there, you don't need to do anything - the feature is
disabled and no telematics data is being shared with Arity.

In the most current release of MyRadar, the Arity SDK has been disabled
- it's not providing any telemetry data for anyone, but ordinarily - if
it was working and you wanted to disable this feature, you can start
MyRadar and tap the "Settings" icon (far right), then tap "MyDrives ->
Delete My Account" and that will discontinue the feature and delete your
data."

<https://www.reddit.com/r/MyRadar/comments/1dbt8l6/comment/l7yjeb3/>

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

On 6/17/24 14:22, Andrew wrote:
> For privacy, you may wish to avoid apps powered by Arity
> (GasBuddy, Life360, MyRadar, etc.)
>
> *These apps track your driving habits and sell that information*
> *to insurance companies* (funded by AllState)
> <https://www.techspot.com/news/103416-apps-track-driving-habits-sell-information-insurance-companies.html>
>
> "The New York Times dropped a bomb on drivers of connected
> vehicles: manufacturers collect and sell their driving data
> to insurance companies, which use the information to set
> rates for individual drivers. Now, a new report shows that
> this type of data collection is more ubiquitous than even
> dystopian-minded privacy advocates might have realized.
> Information about driving habits is being collected by apps
> that are only tangentially related to automobiles. You may
> already have one installed on your phone.
> Examples include Life360, MyRadar, and GasBuddy."
>
> Life360 is popular with parents who want to keep track of their families.
> MyRadar offers weather forecasts. GasBuddy can help you find cheap fuel.
>
> Apparently the underlying tracking engine is Arity.
> <https://arity.com/industries/mobile-apps/>
>
> "Arity uses the data to create driving scores for tens of millions
> of people & then markets the scores to auto insurance companies."
>
> See also:
> *We explore the apps that are quietly tracking drivers' habits.*
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/briefing/driving-apps-insurance-tracking.html>
>
> *Carmakers are sharing driving habits with insurance companies*
> <https://www.techspot.com/news/102225-many-connected-vehicles-share-driving-habits-insurers-unbeknownst.html>

<long subject truncated>

Thanks, very useful info! There are several issues raised by this topic:

Insurers have a vital interest in accidents; no accidents, no need to
insure.

Privacy is certainly another but where does it really begin and end? If
an insurer were to follow you around for a week to get a feel for the
risk that you represent would that be a privacy violation? I'm not
convinced it would.

Insurers claim that they must know the accident risk but in all business
venture there is also the investment risk. Predictability means no
investment risk and in that case what are users paying through the nose
for? If all drivers are predictable then all we need is a body-shop and
doctors co-op clearing house that does essentially what insurers do but
without profit.

In any accident-risk predictble system accident causing drivers would
pay pre-rata more. Being a safe driver I'm not sure if I would have any
isues with that; however insurance is supposed to be a cost leveling
struct so everyone should in theory pay exactly the same.

On 2024-06-18 11:09:56 +0000, bad sector said:

> On 6/17/24 14:22, Andrew wrote:
>> For privacy, you may wish to avoid apps powered by Arity
>> (GasBuddy, Life360, MyRadar, etc.)
>>
>> *These apps track your driving habits and sell that information*
>> *to insurance companies* (funded by AllState)
>> <https://www.techspot.com/news/103416-apps-track-driving-habits-sell-information-insurance-companies.html>
>>
>>
>> "The New York Times dropped a bomb on drivers of connected
>> vehicles: manufacturers collect and sell their driving data
>> to insurance companies, which use the information to set
>> rates for individual drivers. Now, a new report shows that
>> this type of data collection is more ubiquitous than even
>> dystopian-minded privacy advocates might have realized.
>> Information about driving habits is being collected by apps
>> that are only tangentially related to automobiles. You may
>> already have one installed on your phone.
>> Examples include Life360, MyRadar, and GasBuddy."
>>
>> Life360 is popular with parents who want to keep track of their families.
>> MyRadar offers weather forecasts. GasBuddy can help you find cheap fuel.
>>
>> Apparently the underlying tracking engine is Arity.
>> <https://arity.com/industries/mobile-apps/>
>>
>> "Arity uses the data to create driving scores for tens of millions
>> of people & then markets the scores to auto insurance companies."
>>
>> See also:
>> *We explore the apps that are quietly tracking drivers' habits.*
>> <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/briefing/driving-apps-insurance-tracking.html>
>>
>>
>> *Carmakers are sharing driving habits with insurance companies*
>> <https://www.techspot.com/news/102225-many-connected-vehicles-share-driving-habits-insurers-unbeknownst.html>
>>
>
> <long subject truncated>
>
> Thanks, very useful info! There are several issues raised by this topic:
>
> Insurers have a vital interest in accidents; no accidents, no need to insure.

There will *always* be accidents, even in the sense of a car hittig
someting else, but insurance is not solely about accidents. It is also
about cars being stolen, the engine catching fire, damaged by vandals,
etc.

Having said that, insurance of any form is largely a legalised scam.
The greedy insurance companies keep taking your money, filling their
own over-bloated pay-packets and "bonuses", and then try every trick in
the book they can to get out of actually paying you when you need it.

> Privacy is certainly another but where does it really begin and end? If
> an insurer were to follow you around for a week to get a feel for the
> risk that you represent would that be a privacy violation? I'm not
> convinced it would.
>
> Insurers claim that they must know the accident risk but in all
> business venture there is also the investment risk. Predictability
> means no investment risk and in that case what are users paying through
> the nose for? If all drivers are predictable then all we need is a
> body-shop and doctors co-op clearing house that does essentially what
> insurers do but without profit.
>
> In any accident-risk predictble system accident causing drivers would
> pay pre-rata more. Being a safe driver I'm not sure if I would have any
> isues with that; however insurance is supposed to be a cost leveling
> struct so everyone should in theory pay exactly the same.

It's just another of the things that only morons who can't drive
sensibly and the paranoid conspiracy loonies would be worried about -
the first shouldn't have a driver's licence in the first place and the
second can get their tin foil hats from Kmart, aisle 5.

bad sector <forgetski@_INVALID.net> wrote:
> On 6/17/24 14:22, Andrew wrote:
>> For privacy, you may wish to avoid apps powered by Arity
>> (GasBuddy, Life360, MyRadar, etc.)
>>
>> *These apps track your driving habits and sell that information*
>> *to insurance companies* (funded by AllState)
>> <https://www.techspot.com/news/103416-apps-track-driving-habits-sell-information-insurance-companies.html>
>>
>> "The New York Times dropped a bomb on drivers of connected
>> vehicles: manufacturers collect and sell their driving data
>> to insurance companies, which use the information to set
>> rates for individual drivers. Now, a new report shows that
>> this type of data collection is more ubiquitous than even
>> dystopian-minded privacy advocates might have realized.
>> Information about driving habits is being collected by apps
>> that are only tangentially related to automobiles. You may
>> already have one installed on your phone.
>> Examples include Life360, MyRadar, and GasBuddy."
>>
>> Life360 is popular with parents who want to keep track of their families.
>> MyRadar offers weather forecasts. GasBuddy can help you find cheap fuel.
>>
>> Apparently the underlying tracking engine is Arity.
>> <https://arity.com/industries/mobile-apps/>
>>
>> "Arity uses the data to create driving scores for tens of millions
>> of people & then markets the scores to auto insurance companies."
>>
>> See also:
>> *We explore the apps that are quietly tracking drivers' habits.*
>> <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/briefing/driving-apps-insurance-tracking.html>
>>
>> *Carmakers are sharing driving habits with insurance companies*
>> <https://www.techspot.com/news/102225-many-connected-vehicles-share-driving-habits-insurers-unbeknownst.html>
>
> <long subject truncated>
>
> Thanks, very useful info! There are several issues raised by this topic:
>
> Insurers have a vital interest in accidents; no accidents, no need to
> insure.

You do realise that insurance is for a lot more than accidents, right?

Even if there were no accidents - which is impossible - your insurance
covers you for theft, loss of keys, damage due to natural events and
sometimes breakdowns.

> Privacy is certainly another but where does it really begin and end? If
> an insurer were to follow you around for a week to get a feel for the
> risk that you represent would that be a privacy violation? I'm not
> convinced it would.
>
> Insurers claim that they must know the accident risk but in all business
> venture there is also the investment risk. Predictability means no
> investment risk and in that case what are users paying through the nose
> for? If all drivers are predictable then all we need is a body-shop and
> doctors co-op clearing house that does essentially what insurers do but
> without profit.

What about scenarios where the owner can't afford to pay out given a
serious incident? No insurance will result in people bankrupting
themselves.

Like this example:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68627759

Imagine being responsible for the destruction of 1400 cars and a
multi-storey carpark.

> In any accident-risk predictble system accident causing drivers would
> pay pre-rata more.

Accident rates are predictable, but not who the accident prone people are.

> Being a safe driver I'm not sure if I would have any
> isues with that; however insurance is supposed to be a cost leveling
> struct so everyone should in theory pay exactly the same.

Most people would end up paying more to cover for the riskier people who
would pay less. Not very fair.