Bowing to public pressure, OnStar said Tuesday the Detroit navigation-and-emergency company would not monitor vehicles after customers cancel service.
The decision to change course comes a day after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. Schumer decried the surveillance as the most “brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory.” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) also said OnStar’s surveillance was a “privacy breach.”
To the outrage of subscribers, OnStar last week began e-mailing customers about an update to its privacy policy. Among other things, it said OnStar would turn off the two-way communication between a former customer and the service upon request — though OnStar would continue to track former customers who simply cancel their account.
Thank goodness for a quick reaction. So far the big battles have gone in our favor. I hate to be cynical, but I am frightened for the time the chips don't fall the right way. For now, we're safe thanks to a couple of fellows who reacted quickly to fix this.
The moment we lapse, rest assured our data will be harvested and sold at every opportunity.
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