Onstar Terms Amendment***

[Supermaro585HP]

I think you would need alot of tin foil. I would think it would be better if you could use paper towels. You would have to be Bounty. Lol

[CamLSRookie2011]

Originally Posted by gahammerle

I wonder if they make body wraps for Camaros in tin foil?

Originally Posted by IBM

Seriously, not another one of these threads. Stop.

[The Stig]

big brother strikes again

[cab2g]

I just do not like it how they say they will share it with 3rd parties. I hate junk mail and unsolicited calls. Their new contract basically allows them to give your info to telemarketers for profit. That's all that I care about. I don't care if GM tracks my car's usage. I just don't want grandmas molasses shop calling me to buy their camaro shaped molasses cookies!

[sprtplt]

Insurance companies are salivating to get access to vehicle telemetry- some policy discounts already exist if you allow monitoring.

Insurance companies have mammoth lobbying efforts, and you don't.

It is coming, and Onstar is leading the way.

[fbody984life]

Just don't do anything illegal, then you"ll have nothing to worry about!!

[Mr. Wyndham]

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

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.

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

[cab2g]

Originally Posted by sprtplt

Insurance companies are salivating to get access to vehicle telemetry- some policy discounts already exist if you allow monitoring.

Insurance companies have mammoth lobbying efforts, and you don't.

It is coming, and Onstar is leading the way.

yeah it'll happen eventually, all in the name of "safety"

[Hendu]

I guess I don't see why it's a big deal. The only thing I would rather them not see is that the only house I stop at is my own

[Rogue Leader]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

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



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

THANK YOU

too bad this post will get lost in a sea of "onstar touched me in my naughty place"

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by ParisTNDude

I received a very disturbing letter today from On-Star. They have changed their policy. In essence, they have told me that they will continue to monitor my car with tracking and any other information they gleen even if I discontinue On-Star service. They said the only way I could stop them from doing this is if I had the system dismantled by my dealership. They also said they would share any information they collect with 3rd party companies. Did I mis-read this?

Sounds like you did mis-read it. You don't have to go to your dealership to stop the monitoring... you just have to ask them.

I really don't see the change as that big of a deal.

[Out4it]

My question is: If I call them to stop sending data,how do I know they stopped? Is there some kind of way to tell if its transmitting? It seems they can just tell you they stopped and we would never know.

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by Out4it

My question is: If I call them to stop sending data,how do I know they stopped? Is there some kind of way to tell if its transmitting? It seems they can just tell you they stopped and we would never know.

Well...there's a matter of trust here you'll need to consider. Not everyone is going to be "out to get you" (I know, you didn't say that...).

IF they did continue transmitting and you didn't know, but then found out by accident somehow...you'd have material worthy of a lawsuit to ruin OnStar for a good long time. I very much doubt they'd take that sort of risk over a few drivers' engine temperatures....

[Sterling]

If you push the Onstar button once and it doesn't connect... it's been disabled.


You would have to push it twice to connect if it was.