At first - I was very nervous when I read the title and the first few posts...I even sent a message off that I now regret. After digging *just a little* deeper...
Here's how I read it...fwiw...translation in blue
Quote:
We have added to the Terms and Conditions the provision that if you or we cancel your OnStar Services, we will maintain the two-way connection with your Vehicle and may continue to collect data from your Vehicle, unless you take certain steps to deactivate the Data Connection or fully disable the Equipment.
If you do not want OnStar to maintain a Data Connection to your Vehicle, you can push your blue button or call us at 1.888.4.ONSTAR at any time and request that the Data Connection be deactivated. It may take up to sixty (60) days for OnStar to cancel your account and deactivate the Data Connection to your Vehicle. During this sixty (60) day period, Service may still be available, and data may be collected from your Vehicle.
Upon deactivation, OnStar will no longer be capable of contacting, or obtaining data from, your Vehicle although you will be able to contact OnStar by pressing the blue OnStar button twice. To disable the Vehicle's ability to contact OnStar through the blue OnStar button, you must visit an authorized dealer and ask them to remove the Equipment from your Vehicle.
.........For example, unless the Data Connection in your Vehicle is deactivated, information about your Vehicle may continue to be collected even if you do not have Service. In addition to other purposes set out in the prior version of the Privacy Statement, we may use the information we collect about you and your Vehicle to improve the quality of our Service and offerings and may share the information we collect with law enforcement or other public safety officials, credit card processors, and/or third parties we contract with who conduct joint marketing initiatives with OnStar.
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Detailed below, we're letting you know that the two-way data connection with your car will be in operation, even if you unsubscribe to our services. But if you'd like us to not do that - please call and we'll honor your request. If you're wearing a tin-foil hat, and check the sky for surveillance satellites every night before bed; your dealer can even rip out the physical OnStar system to ensure your stress levels remain at a healthy level.
.........As we mentioned, we'll reserve the right to collect data from your car for the following purposes. We may collect call/report/usage data from you to improve our services. If asked we'll share information such as current location, etc to law enforcement...but we're not going to go out of our way to "tell on you". If you owe us money, we may share your information with the credit card companies, and perhaps use compiled data such as total miles traveled in your model of car or number of OnStar calls in a year with our marketing partners (like GM, duh!) to better spread the word about OnStar in this increasingly competitive Industry of In-Vehicle safety telematics.
I don't see a huge issue to be frank.
Yes, there are now clear and explicit additions to the ways they're going to use your driving data. And they've changed the UNSUBSCRIBE default to "on" for their data logging...basically adding an extra step to get them to go blind.
But you see that? One more step taken -- and they're still blind,
just like before. No credit card processors...no joint marketing initiatives...and never, not even if they're still monitoring, insurance companies. I didn't see them mentioned...
What I read was a lot of explanation for a small change.
EDIT: For those still worried - I recommend you put the above amendment in context and read the whole privacy statement:
http://www.onstar.com/web/portal/privacy