Drivers Should Own Their Car Data

New cars have been collecting data for decades since the 1980s. This has benefited car owners tremendously – by making it easier to figure out what’s wrong with their cars. 

On Board Diagnostics literally tells them everything they need to know.

All cars made since the mid-1990s have a universal OBD plug-in port under the dash – and anyone can buy an OBD scan tool for about $100 that can be plugged into it. They don’t even need to do that as many car parts stores will use their scan tool to download the code – indicating the problem – for free. The owner can then either fix what’s wrong or at least knows what’s the matter when he takes the car in to have someone else fix it. 

This beats the heck out of guessing – or hoping that what the shop tells you is the truth.

All of this is possible because the code isn’t proprietary –  i.e., the property of the company that made and sold the car. Some car manufacturers would very much like to own your data, however.

Even though it's your car. 

The data at issue is more than diagnostic. It encompasses  your preferences, as indicated by such things as the radio programs/playlists you listen to, the apps you use, GPS locator information and so on - all of which is collected by hard drives built into many new cars and – potentially, at least – accessible by anyone who can wirelessly connect with the car.  

The latter in italics to reflect a not-well-known fact about almost all vehicles made since roughly 2010 or so. Data is transmitted as well as received - typically without the owner's conscious knowledge. Most probably signed a User Agreement at the time of purchase - along with all the other paperwork associated with the purchase of a new vehicle. But the details and implications may not have been fully explained to the buyer - or got lost in the fine print.

The point is the manufacturers – i.e., the car companies – have real-time, wireless access to the data collected and stored by your car. This - in itself - is not a bad thing. The data can be used to identify a hardware (or software) problem, wireless update software (so as to avoid the need to spend time at a dealership), and so on.

But there is also the potential for automakers to make a buck – trillions of them, actually – by selling your data without your knowledge or your consent to third parties who are very interested in your habits and preferences. For example, data about the restaurants and gas stations you've visited - using the car's apps to locate them. These corporations want to know what you like - and what you buy. 

It goes beyond that, too – as most new cars also have built-in cameras and microphones that record visual and audio data.

Your opinions can be mined. It works very much in the way that Siri and Amazon Alexa work. And - by the way - a number of new cars (including several Toyota models) have Alexa built into them from the factory.

From a purely technological standpoint, it is already possible for the government – or your insurance company – to glean data about your driving and travel habits without your permission.

In other words, it's not just Big Brother that's watching you. It's also big corporations.

As you might expect – especially given the estimated $2 trillion in revenue that could be data-minded from people's vehicles – the powers-that-be are very interested in hogging it all and keeping you from having any say.

They want your data to be their property. The way they want to do this is by making the data (and access to it) proprietary. You nominally own the vehicle - and get to pay for it. But they assert ownership of the data.

Right now, they are fighting among themselves for what's on the table. GM recently announced it would soon be using its own, in-house technology to power the wireless/Bluetooth apps in GM electric vehicles, rather than software developed by Apple (CarPlay) or Google (Android Auto). That way, GM controls the data – and can profit from mining it.

Meanwhile, the source of all this data and revenue – the driver – doesn't even get a thank-you card in the mail.

Fundamentally, this is an issue of ownership rather than data, per se. It is already being haggled over in the courts, in the context of so-called "right-to-repair" laws that forbid a manufacturer of a vehicle from locking the owner of the vehicle out as regards access to the data needed for him to service the vehicle or to have it serviced by an independent/non-manufacturer-affiliated garage.

With Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Vice Chair Tim Wahlberg (R-MI), Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and the larger Innovation, Data, and Commerce subcommittee expected to study the issue of autonomous vehicles in the coming weeks, it will be haggled over in Congress, too. The issue is truly national in scope and is already affecting almost everyone.

Monopolies are forbidden under the Interstate Commerce Clause, and what we're dealing with here is more than just a monopoly situation in that these companies don't merely want to corner the market on something they have to sell .... They want to sell you. Using the car you paid to do it.

To prevent this from happening, Congress should ensure that drivers maintain ownership over their data. Doing so would establish what should have been self-evident (and respected in law) from the beginning: If it's your car – and you paid for it – then it's all yours. Including the data it contains – which should work for you rather than as a source of "revenue" (and maybe worse) for people and interests that didn't pay a cent for it and shouldn’t have a right to even a byte of it.

Eric Peters has been writing a column about cars since the ‘90s and working on them since he was a kid. He’s the author of “Automotive Atrocities: The Cars We Love to Hate” and “Road Hogs.”