Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He’s never been responsible for an accident.
So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor.
LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl’s request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page “consumer disclosure report,” which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.
On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.
We don’t have to worry about the government tracking us everywhere we go. These corporations will do it for them and then sell the data for a proft.
What a great use of my tax dollars.
Not will, do: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/28/government-buying-your-data-00143742
This is how you radicalize a populace. Fuckin stupid move.
That’s right. The thing that anti-government people seem to forget is that, left unchecked, corporations are much worse than oppressive governments. Democratic Nations need to be vigilant of both.
The government buys your data, too. And not just your government.
For any legal case, government or your spouse’s divorce attorney, it’s a low bar to soupeana “business records” from these companies.
The US needs stronger data protection and privacy laws. Unfortunately, the corporations buy enough politicians to prevent it.
Unfortunately one of their customers is the government, so we still have to worry about that too.
Flock Safety has entered the chat