Big Brother Is Watching

[Canyonero]

For those contacting OnStar, are you just pressing the button or calling by phone. Is there any info needed on hand to authenticate like a VIN, address etc...?

[FH212]

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

When the dealership activates your Onstar, there is an option to accept or decline sending data to your insurance company for "insurance discounts". I select deny for everyone unless they tell me they want it.

I'm wondering if your dealer actually told you this or not and if they didn't, I wonder if they just hit accept on your behalf.

Awesome info and I feel ALOT better now knowing you set up my Camaro. Whew.......

[22LT1Camaro]

Originally Posted by Canyonero

For those contacting OnStar, are you just pressing the button or calling by phone. Is there any info needed on hand to authenticate like a VIN, address etc...?

If you set up a trial account then nothing special is needed when you call them.

if you haven't activated your account yet then I'm not sure what they will ask...

[SATINSTEEL1LE]

You can defeat Lexisnexis by requesting they lock/freeze your report. Then it cant be requested by anyone.

I did this for me and the wife a long time ago. They are like a wannabe credit report that nobody uses.

https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/freeze

Request a Security Freeze
Freeze Access to Your Credit File
Applying a security freeze prohibits LexisNexis Risk Solutions and SageStream from releasing your LexisNexis Consumer Disclosure Report, your SageStream Consumer Report, or your credit score without your express authorization. The security freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. However, a security freeze does not apply to companies, or collection agencies acting on behalf of such companies, with which you have an existing account that requests information in your consumer report for the purposes of reviewing or collecting the account. Reviewing the account includes activities related to account maintenance, monitoring, credit line increases, and account upgrades and enhancements. LexisNexis Risk Solutions does not charge a fee to apply, lift or remove a security freeze from your file.

[Canyonero]

Thanks to IndyPaceCar for starting this thread.

I called just now and deactivated the entire car.

I bought my car used from a dealer a few years ago. OnStar was never activated.

When I pressed the button on the rearview mirror, it prompted me to press again to activate the account or speak to an operator. I decided to call instead. 1 (888) 466-7827. For security, I was asked for my name, email address and physical address.

The operator said I had no active plan so no data was coming across. I had to clarify that this was for privacy, I did not want to share anything, including diagnostic data with GM or 3rd parties. She said she could completely deactivate the vehicle then put me on hold for three minutes.

I also asked if existing data could be deleted. She said that because OnStar was never activated, nothing was collected. Information is only shared with AT&T. I hope this is true. Maybe handled differently in Canada.

Next steps, I'm going to pull the fuse on the weekend. I only occasionally drive the car on weekends and don't care if the mic and compass work.

[BLU]

Great threat. All of this makes me wonder about privacy laws like CCPA in California and how it plays with data from cars and the selling of it to 3rd parties like insurance companies since VINs can be linked to the identity of the registered owner.

[arpad_m]

So I called them as well, and it was slightly creepy, too, because they didn't ask for any identification information apart from my name... anyway, they said smart driver was never enabled on my car, and nothing is collected by OnStar or sent to 3rd parties.

Hope this is true, one thing's for sure, never saw any insurance discount (or penalty, heh).

[KingLT1]

I wonder if changing the setting GMLAN to Calibration in the ECM blocks any of this? I have mine set to Calibration and OnStar was disabled before I left the dealership lot.

[CHASLT1]

Won't shock me if this crap is forced on all of us one day. Hope my C6 is too old for all this tracking junk.

[Palutz]

Thanks to IndyPaceCar and everyone else bringing this to light. This thread should be a sticky for current and future owners because I never imagined GM would share this data without our expressed approval. Kind of really rubs me the wrong way thinking about how my salesman kept pushing the idea that the last step after getting the keys was to speak to an Onstar agent. I would have opted out had the agent mentioned any kind of analytics sharing. The gathering doesn’t bother me because our phones collect a lot more than we’d like but this isn’t right. Hagerty hasn’t said anything about my driving habits yet so I’ll handle Onstar for now. By the way, the Chevrolet Smart Driver is in the app and yes it does track everything.

[Mark R]

Originally Posted by CHASLT1

Won't shock me if this crap is forced on all of us one day. Hope my C6 is too old for all this tracking junk.

All electric cars are externally controllable, connected, etc. A tyrant's dream.

[Palutz]

I just unenrolled through the Chevy app. It said I was enrolled in the Driver tracking bs on 8/11/22 … I didn’t pick up the car until the next day so I wasn’t even asked if I wanted to be tracked.

[Anjilslaire]

So if we're not enrolled in the app, are we good to go? the MyChevy app says SmartDriver is not enrolled.

Or do we still need to call & verify?

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Anjilslaire

So if we're not enrolled in the app, are we good to go? the MyChevy app says SmartDriver is not enrolled.

Or do we still need to call & verify?

Same here, good question. Thanks again to the OP for bringing this up.