Tag: PRIVACY

Why Pay-Per-Mile Auto Insurance is a Bad Idea after All

With so many services now available on a subscription basis, it’s little surprise that the insurance industry is moving in that direction too. One of the newer solutions from auto insurers is the pay-per-mile insurance plan. The idea is straightforward: you pay a flat fee to cover theft insurance and each time you drive the […]

Where’s Our Cut from Data Mining of our Cars?

You’ve probably seen people driving around in cars covered over or “wrapped” with advertisements for some service or product and wondered how much the owner got paid to allow his car to be transformed into a mobile billboard. But he is at least getting paid. The non-wrapped cars are working, too but their owners aren’t being […]

Choose your victims well (continued)

More from the “everybody does it” department. A Missouri sheriff was sentenced to six months in prison for tracking important people instead of nobodies. There is a massive infrastructure dedicated to tracking Americans. The sheriff used a private company, the ironically named Securus. They do not keep your information secure. Why should they? You are […]

Profound Privacy Risks without our Consent: NMA E-Newsletter #545

GeekWire posted last month that Portland, Oregon quietly launched a controversial mobile location data project with partner Sidewalk Labs (a subsidiary of Alphabet–which is the parent company of Google). In this year-long pilot program, the city has authorized that people, who have smartphones, will be tracked without their consent or knowledge. Portland is using software […]

Newsletter Reboot: To Record or Not to Record, That is the Question

This newsletter originally appeared on the NMA website in November 2018. An interesting phenomenon is being reported by some members. Police officers approaching their vehicles during routine traffic stops are asking an opening question different than the traditional, “Do you know why I stopped you?” Rather, in this day of rising popularity of dashcams and […]

The GPS Granny Nanny

America is slowing down. How long before it stops entirely? Literally stops? A reader who is a commercial driver wrote to tell me about how his work vehicle is monitored and controlled via the safety tech that is coming soon to your garage and may already be there, just waiting to be fully enabled. His […]