Popular finance guru The Barefoot Investor has issued a stern warning to Aussies thinking of buying a new car.
Scott Pape, who wrote the best-selling financial advice book The Barefoot Investor in 2016, argued that new ‘internet-enabled cars’ in the US often share data about a driver’s speeding, braking and swerving with insurance companies.
This data can then lead to an increase in their insurance premiums.
Mr Pape recently wrote about his joyless experience driving a ‘Chinese-built Haval Jolion SUV’ on his blog.
‘It is hands down the worst car I’ve ever driven (and in my twenties I drove a Mitsubishi Magna that leaked more oil than Saddam Hussein),’ Mr Pape wrote.
Scott Pape (pictured), who wrote the best-selling financial advice book The Barefoot Investor in 2016, argued that new ‘internet-enabled cars’ in the US often share data about a driver’s speeding, braking and swerving with insurance companies. This data can then lead to an increase in their insurance premiums
Mr Pape recently wrote about his joyless experience driving a ‘Chinese-built Haval Jolion SUV’ (pictured) with all its sensors and alarms to keep a driver in check
‘The Haval makes me feel like I’m 17 years old, back on my L-plates, with my hyper-anxious mother in the passenger seat “guiding” me.’
Mr Pape said the car would ‘ding’ repeatedly to keep him in check, including when he did not wear his seatbelt, tried to overtake or even if he looked away from the windscreen.
He suggested something more ‘sinister’ might be at work.
‘You see, in the US, internet-enabled cars are recording all those dings, swerves and sharp stops, and selling the data for millions to the insurance industry,’ he wrote.
‘The result? People are often pinged with higher insurance premiums.’
While he acknowledged that this is only a reality in the US for now, he warned that it could soon be widespread in Australia.
‘The most powerful car companies on Earth have teams of lawyers who craft 12,000-word privacy terms and conditions that they know no one ever reads,’ Mr Pape wrote.
‘This then allows the companies to track and sell our every move, and the buyers of that data feed it into algorithms and use it against us.’
In October, Katherine Kemp, Associate Professor at the UNSW’s Faculty of Law & Justice, warned that ‘Australia’s privacy laws need urgent reform’.
Scott Pape (pictured with his wife Liz) warned Aussies to be wary of internet-enabled cars
‘Australia’s privacy laws aren’t up to the task of protecting the vast amount of personal information collected and shared by car companies,’ Ms Kemp wrote.
‘And since our privacy laws don’t demand the specific disclosures required by some US states, we have much less information about what car companies are doing with our data.’
Ms Kemp cited a US study by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation which found that cars with internet-connected features were ‘the official worst category of products for privacy’ they had ever reviewed, dubbing them a ‘privacy nightmare on wheels’.
They tested all major car brands – Toyota, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla, Hyundai – and found they all failed to meet minimum privacy standards.
Almost 85 per cent share or sell your data to third parties, while Nissan and Kia reportedly even allow the collection of data on a driver’s sex life.
‘They come right out and say they can collect and share your sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic information and other sensitive personal information for targeted marketing purposes,’ the report by the Mozilla Foundation states.
