OnStar kills plan to track ex-subscribers

[nyrfan]

n the face of a full-on revolt from users and pressure from Congress, Drudge Report and other media outlets, General Motors' OnStar service just announced it was reversing plans to keep tracking vehicles of its 6 million subscribers if they cancel the service. Now once it's off, it's off.
The changes unveiled two weeks ago would have kept a data connection with any OnStar-equipped GM vehicle active unless an ex-subscriber specifically asked for it to be shut off. OnStar said it wanted to keep the connection alive to offer new services and alert vehicle owners in case of emergency or recalls — but also said it reserved the right to share or sell anonymous data about the vehicles it tracked to outsiders, including government agencies and marketers.
Since then, OnStar's seen a burgeoning customer revolt, been forced to explain its changes repeatedly and faced criticism from at least three U.S. senators accusing the service of invading privacy. Even the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was asked to probe whether OnStar was violating federal privacy rules.
OnStar President Linda Marshall now says customers who cancel will have their data connection shut off; if OnStar wants to turn it back on, it will have to get the owner's permission. And OnStar will "honor customers' preferences about how data from that connection is treated" — which leaves room for the company to still share data, but only after getting permission from users

[Archontruth]

Good news. I'm not mechanically minded, so I wasn't looking forward to figuring out how to remove the damn thing.

[coolman]

How do we really know if it's turned off or not anyway?

[SS_Matt]

Originally Posted by coolman

How do we really know if it's turned off or not anyway?

It'll be on all the time- just a matter of connection to OnStar.

This is excellent news. Thanks for posting.

[nyrfan]

Originally Posted by coolman

How do we really know if it's turned off or not anyway?

You don't but the data could never be used against you and you'd have a nice lawsuit if you found out they did not disconnect it.

[HumanWiki]

Good....

All the people telling us to take off the tin foil can suck it.... They chose to jump all over those of us that backlashed on it like we had some sort of problem.. Where's your attitude now? -- considering how big of a deal it turned out to be by so many people and organizations...

[nyrfan]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Good....

All the tin foil commentators out there can suck it.... They chose to jump all over those of us that backlashed on it like we had some sort of problem.. Where's your attitude now?

I for one never really understood the whole issue but that was just me. I do feel somewhat better knowing that they will not be tracking.

[SS_Matt]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Good....

All the tin foil commentators out there can suck it.... They chose to jump all over those of us that backlashed on it like we had some sort of problem.. Where's your attitude now? -- considering how big of a deal it turned out to be by so many people and organizations...

Just fyi- the "tin foil commentators" (people concerned about their privacy rights) were the reason why OnStar is reversing it. If no one bitched about it- they would be monitoring everyone and wouldn't have reversed it.

[CamaroSkooter]

LOL at the power of the sheeple!!!

[HumanWiki]

Originally Posted by SS_Matt

Just fyi- the "tin foil commentators" (people concerned about their privacy rights) were the reason why OnStar is reversing it. If no one bitched about it- they would be monitoring everyone and wouldn't have reversed it.

You read that wrong... I was one of the ones told to take off the Tin Foil because I was against the whole thing to begin with.. I, and people like me, were constantly insulted and ridiculed about why we had such a problem being tracked to begin with... I'm glad they killed it and I'm glad it was such a media/customer backlash for them.. They should never have proposed those changes to begin with.

Anyways, I changed my wording so it would read easier... Sounded fine in my head.

[SS_Matt]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

You read that wrong... I was one of the ones told to take off the Tin Foil because I was against the whole thing to begin with.. I, and people like me, were constantly insulted and ridiculed about why we had such a problem being tracked to begin with... I'm glad they killed it and I'm glad it was such a media/customer backlash for them.. They should never have proposed those changes to begin with.

Anyways, I changed my wording so it would read easier... Sounded fine in my head.

My bad.

Gotcha.

[HumanWiki]

Originally Posted by SS_Matt

My bad.

Gotcha.

It's OK.. I went back and re-read it and it did sound clumsy..

[Rogue Leader]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Good....

All the tin foil commentators out there can suck it.... They chose to jump all over those of us that backlashed on it like we had some sort of problem.. Where's your attitude now? -- considering how big of a deal it turned out to be by so many people and organizations...

Suck it yourself. Yes they turned it down, big deal.

I never said I can't understand why someone minds being tracked, just like I don't like getting emails for herbal viagra, and get rich quick schemes, some do care and some don't.

My issue was the extreme take on it, that this was now the government tracking you, watching you, OnStar ratting on you, Insurance companies following you etc. If that were really true, then this post wouldn't exist because they would not have stopped it.

You see how quickly it got squashed, and the reason is exactly what I said, they want to MAKE MONEY any way they can, if they could have gotten away with this they would have sold the marketing data and made money, instead they see it pissed off their customers and they would be losing current and future subscriptions, so they got rid of it.

All they care about is people writing them that $300 check every year, or the even bigger check a marketing company would write to them. They could give a crap how fast you're going, where your office is, or how often you stop off at your mistresses house.

[CamaroSkooter]

OnStar doesn't track anyone.

It's like y'all think the people at OnStar have a "war room" with little dots all over a map showing every equipped car's location and current speed.