Your Right to Privacy by Jim Bronskill & David McKie

Your Right to Privacy by Jim Bronskill & David McKie

Author:Jim Bronskill & David McKie [Jim Bronskill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COMPUTERS / Security / Online Safety & Privacy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Security
Publisher: Self-Counsel Press
Published: 2016-05-30T04:00:00+00:00


2. In Your Vehicle

Your family vehicle is learning more about who’s behind the wheel — everything from where you like to shop to how hard you brake — as automakers roll out new tech-savvy features. Onboard navigation systems can tell where a vehicle is and where it has been. Electronic components stream data to computers that gauge driver behavior and the vehicle’s roadworthiness. Vehicles recognize drivers and adjust settings for them. Infotainment systems allow voice and data communications.

“With connectivity, cars are becoming highly efficient data harvesting machines,” says a 2015 study by the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) on these developments.[7] Customer data generated by the connected vehicle is now seen as a major new source of revenue for marketers and advertisers, the study found. Some insurance companies are offering coverage that sets premiums based on driving patterns.

When tracked, combined, or linked with other available data, the information can reveal intensely private details of a person’s life, making it vulnerable to abuse by thieves, stalkers, and others with malicious intent, the study says.

It argues automakers have failed to comply with their obligations under privacy law when it comes to giving customers adequate information and choice about how their data is collected and used. The study recommends creation of data-protection regulations for the connected-vehicle and insurance industries, as well as involvement of privacy experts in the design stage of wired-vehicle research projects.

Vincent Gogolek, Executive Director of the BC association, believes the issue will be very important for the industry, government, and public. “There is still time to make choices and design systems that will protect privacy, but that window is closing quickly.” With vehicles collecting and even sharing more personal data, Canada’s privacy watchdog is quietly trying to ensure manufacturers, retailers, and insurance companies avoid bumps on the virtual highway.

The federal privacy commissioner’s office, which financially supported the BC study, is “actively following” the issues and has held discussions with industry players and provincial regulators, Valerie Lawton, a spokesperson for the commissioner, told The Canadian Press (CP).[8]

The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, which represents the country’s largest carmakers, initiated a meeting with the federal commissioner’s office in June 2015, say notes disclosed to CP under the Access to Information Act. Federal privacy officials saw it as an opportunity to get a better sense of the information collected by intelligent cars, what might be coming, and whether manufacturers were fully aware of their obligations, the notes indicate.

Legal and regulatory requirements are considered whenever carmakers look at introducing new technologies with privacy implications, said Mark Nantais, Manufacturers’ Association President.

“We’re fully compliant — and intend to be fully compliant — with the laws that are applicable,” Nantais said in an interview.

The internal notes from the privacy commissioner paint a futuristic scenario involving in-car advertising; for instance, a near-empty gas-tank sensor could project an advisory on the windshield offering the driver a discount at a nearby filling station.

Nantais, however, played down the notion wired cars produce a bounty of valuable information. “Is it myth or reality that the data actually exists? That’s a valid question,” he said.



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