bhamg

From CNBC:

Ford: We can use GPS to track your car movements

Global positioning system (GPS) users, be warned—Ford has its eyes on you.

A top executive at the car maker told a panel discussion at the CES trade show in Las Vegas that the tracking system installed in cars allows Ford to know when drivers are speeding—and where they are when they do it, according to a report in Business Insider.

Ford's global vice president of marketing and sales, Jim Farley, said that the No. 2 U.S. automaker knows "everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing," according to the report. "By the way, we don't supply that data to anyone."

He added that there might be a day when data might be used anonymously, and as part of ways to help marketers with traffic-related problems.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101323703

Anyone have any thoughts re. various years and services (i.e., M Brace) on our cars?

balthaser

To answer that question, you just need to know GPS device itself only does one-way communication. It's a receiver not a transponder.

rage2

Mbrace, onstar etc. would make it 2 way. Of course tracking users without consent would break a lot of privacy laws.

Ford guy retracted his statements already.

bhamg

Here's what GM's VP of Subscriber Services has been quoted as saying about this issue:

"When it comes to location and speed, uh ... we're very careful to tell our customers that we do not continuously or routinely ... um ... monitor the location or speed of their vehicle."

"We've not sold personalized information about our customers in the past and we really don't have any plans to do anything like that in the future."

"When it comes to sensitive information such as location information, for example, we want to make sure that we handle that information with the utmost care and that we use the information only as required to provide the safety, security, and convenient services that our customers value."