677
Toyota Owner Didn’t Know His Car Was Talking To Insurers Until He Saw His Rates
(www.carscoops.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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All carmakers are doing that, not just Toyota. If someone posts a similar report about China's BYD you are whatabouted to death, but if it is about a non-Chinese carmaker, there are no whataboutisms.
Is the data collection good or bad now? Should we have digital sovereignty in Europe and other democracies or just import ChEaP cHiNeSe CaRs?
[Edit typo.]
Nobody pretends that BYD cars don't do that. Plenty of articles get posts here trying to create a false impression that China is uniquely bad in this regard.
You can have data sovereignty by mandating as much, Chinese cars already are built to comply with regulations of their markets.
@alcoholicorn@hexbear.net
Chinese companies must report to the Chinese party-state, and that includes sending data back to China collected also by cars. There is ample evidence for this. The Chinese government's grip on its companies to 'collaborate' has even been growing stronger in recent years.
So? China doesn't control my insurance rates. If someone has to get my data then I'd rather it be them instead of Trumpistan.
Literally any country can subpoea car manufacturers data. And the data simply would not be collected if regulations required it. This applies to every country.
What's your deal with China? 98% of your posts seem to be any articles you can find that amount to "china bad".
He’s a member of the China Bad Times Club https://lemmy.ml/post/39655060
Well, in USA private companies do that all the time too bcs of the grip of the two-party system on private companies, eg it seems authorities have seamless access to Ring cameras.
I think that sort of thing is a given and part of your regular country risk. In most big countries it's just a question how much the gov runs companies or the other way around.
But regulation can help a lot.
Eg EU could mandate a physical switch for wireless data (ie manufacturer) in cars.
... or you know, even mandatory foss or you-own-the-product-you-buy laws.
The Chinese party-state seems to be having problems telling these manufacturers to stop underselling each other right now.
Not related to the current thread but I thought it was interesting.
At least in the EU we should have opt in for any communication. I don't really get it why there is no such law in place, even more so when we have GDPR and annoying cookie dialogs. 🤷♂️
Firefox extensions allow for auto clicking no on those forms. Which I do want to exists.
GDPR is getting some changes & megacorps aren't even actually adhering to it when it's too good for them not to (eg MS cloud).
All car makers talk to insurers?
(I know they collect personal data.)
How often is it even legal for car insurance premiums (which is different from discounts) to change based on observed non-incident data (eg driving style) of an individual?
Progressive sells this as a service, you put their tracker in your car and it adjusts your rate based on driving patterns.
Oh, that's common nowdays, as devices in olden days, now just insurers apps (depending on local laws it might only adjust your discounts, not base premium, but same diff). It predominantly lowers claims.
What isn't common (afaik, that's my question) is a third party doing that through general data brokering.
A bit like you driving badly on local news, the insurer sees that & ups your premium. It's accepted with life insurance (bcs tos), but not really ~~non-life~~ car insurance. Idk tho, markets differ a lot.