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Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

nytimes.com

1–10 of 256 posts

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#2
Why?

Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on.

Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme privacy movement.

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#3
post #2

Why? Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on. Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme…

> I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs".

Huh? How is users wanting to control the personal data they create (e.g. telemetrics) an “extreme” movement?

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#4
post #2

Why? Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on. Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme…

On the one hand I agree about extreme privacy movement and I can see how travel in the public roads provides some reason to provide driving data to the public... or even the builder.

On the other hand, if it's your car why don't you control it and the data it collects? Maybe if it was loaned, leased, or licensed I could see the seller retaining a right to data, but ownership has its privileges.

In the extreme case, let's say your local used car dealer surveils his sales after the fact and at some point offers not to publish details for a monthly fee?

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#5
post #2

Why? Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on. Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme…

Because I own the car and it is, in reality, extremely sensitive data that can reveal everything from your political beliefs to your sexual orientation.

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#7
post #6

Why limit this to just cars? Is there something unique about cars? Why not phone users? Or internet users?

Let’s throw in our toasters, fridges and washing machines as well. Then some data scientist can correlate the best before dates of foods in my fridge by the number of panties in the washer in order to target me with ads for tummy meds.

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#8
post #2

Why? Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on. Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme…

If data is generated by something I own then it is my data and I don't care if it affects someone's business model or whatever perceived future benefit they are promising.

And trying to maintain status quo is not extreme privacy movement, it's common sense.

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#9
post #2

Why? Why not have that data go someplace it could do real good in informing better safety systems, better traffic management and so on. Privacy is a spectrum, I am getting kinda tired how people think data about them is "theirs". In some cases maybe it should be, in other cases, it should not be. Now maybe you should have a right to see it, download it, and remove identifying markers but I am so tired of this extreme…

Because car manufacturers tried to sell the data to advertisers, until they backed down because of the PR shitstorm (the article doesn't go into sufficient detail about this). If people are over-reacting towards privacy, that's understandable and well-deserved considering the over-reaches of data owners.

I think we need better privacy regulation. And "better" doesn't necessarily mean more restrictive, although quit a few players will feel restricted. It makes sense to separate data for safety from data for advertising (e.g. GDPR provides a framework for this). "Public benefit" can be a nebulous grey area.

Re: Car Owners Should Control Data Collected by Cars

#10
What?

> We know our smartphones, Nests and Alexas collect data, and we’ve come to accept an implicit contract: We trade personal information for convenience. With cars, we have no such expectation ... What carmakers are doing with the collected data isn’t clear.

At least Tesla has demonstrated that their data collection is for training their full self-driving capability. That represents tremendous end-user value, in my opinion.

To me, this NY Times article is an argument that smartphones and smart agents should exfiltrate less data than they do. It's the purported end-user value of smartphone and smart agent data collection that I find less credible. Yes, they should collect data, but it's quite unclear why so much of the data needs to be hoarded and used by cloud motherships. That data can be stored and worked with on-device; the premise that on-device computation is too limited is just flimsy.

Frankly the value of smart agents as a whole is a bit murky, especially when lined up against full self-driving cars.

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