Allstate accused of quietly paying app makers for driver data Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday filed a lawsuit against Allstate Corporation and its mobile analytics subsidiary, Arity, alleging the American insurance giant conspired with mobile app developers to collect telematics data on millions of motorists without consent, in violation of consumer protection laws. Allstate …
If you're installing random apps, they are selling everything they collect to at least Facebook (who have a giant active profile on you whether you are using their platforms or not, including all your credit card transactions and health records) and then of course everyone else wants in on the action too.
Of course I can tut tut and say people should have basic data hygiene, but I do know in reality that on mobile at least 99.99% of people are basically whoring around Haiti without condoms and are incapable of learning. So legislation is the only way to deal with it if you actually want to.
Aren't you holier-than-thou! Goodness gracious, we should all aspire to be as pure!
I am NOT installing random apps, you idiot. I really don't see how you expect someone to know an app is doing this.
The GasBuddy app (which is pushed EXTREMELY hard any time you search for anything remotely driving-related) is very useful for shopping local gas prices without actually physically driving around to the stations. It uses location data to find the nearest stations.
I don't use it myself, as I use ethanol-free gas, but a lot of my co-workers use it and like it.
> I am NOT installing random apps, you idiot. I really don't see how you expect someone to know an app is doing this.
... ... Yep. The problem here is that you are NOT expecting that every app is doing this until proven otherwise. Of course they are. With an app like GasBuddy, the product is YOU. Did you think they were doing this out of the goodness of their hearts?
Close apps after you're done with them! They can't access location information or accelometer info or any of that stuff if they aren't running! You aren't going to run gasbuddy while you're driving (at least I hope not) but when you run it you can click on 'directions' to have it to map your route using Apple/Google Maps and that's when you should close gasbuddy.
I do this out of habit every time I put my phone down. I might leave Messages running if I'm going back and forth with someone but pretty much everytime I pick up my phone to do something like check the weather, check sports scores, waste time on social media I'll close the app(s) I started before putting the phone down. I rarely leave anything running in the background. So good luck for those apps to track me on any ongoing basis, no matter what evil SDK they use or what shortcomings there on in permissions to block apps from accessing the accelerometer.
It doesn't take long to train yourself do this. I started doing it when I got my iPhone 3gs not out of privacy concerns but because I figured it would run faster not leaving a bunch of crap taking up its meager RAM. That's obviously not a concern on my 16 Pro Max but once I got into the habit I never stopped because there was no good reason to stop.
I can't imagine how many people have a dozen or more third party apps running in the background 24x7 monitoring their location, how many steps they take, how often they pick up their phone, and on and on. Most people don't even bother to check permissions on apps or restrict them so I wouldn't be surprised if some have asked for permission to access location or even camera/microphone that have no business doing so they've mindlessly granted.
I... know I can't do that, so I am just very parsimonious with installing any apps at all. This is the only sane thing to do if you care about your privacy.
I have fully invested in Apple for phone since you can't trust Google at all, and it's quite possible I will be spectacularly betrayed there, but what other choice to do I have? They are the only company that uses the promise of privacy to sell hardware - so the hardware is more expensive, but I am okay with that trade. So I use Apple Maps (now much better than the LOLriffic launch) instead of Google Maps, etc.
And then I would never install random shit like Gasbuddy where it is very obvious that I am the product to be spied on. I would never install 'Hey, free flashlight!1' by TotallyNotTheCCP哈哈哈哈.
So yeah, I am quite comfortable with the apps I have actually installed, anyone who actually gave a crap could do the same.
The main thing I'm getting from all these comments is 'holy crap why are all you people reading The Register so goddamn naive'? I would certainly expect this from random public, but I would kind of hope that anyone reading this site would at least realize that tech companies are your enemies, they are harvesting and selling as much of your data as possible, every app is a weapon fired at your banana organs, and that you are all so shocked that an obviously shady app like GasBuddy is selling your data is just horrifying to me. It's like the Honey scandal, that was 100% predictable from the instant it launched, and I did predict that, and now people are shocked, shocked! that they are actually using the completely obvious business model. Well, we do live in the Worst Possible Timeline.
So feel free to downvote me all you want, but I sincerely hope at least some of you have enough self awareness that you can learn at least the very minimal extremely obvious lessons from all this. This was all 100% predictable and predicted. You just did not have enough hate for giant evil corporations. HINT: They do not have your best interests at heart.
No one actually speaks up about what these companies are gathering, how they're using the data, etc.
No one.
It's only ever found out about through lawsuits and discovery.
It really shows the kind of people that Americans are. Not one of them who works in this industry cares about the spying, the law breaking, the Orwelianism, of all that they're doing.
I would the companies would exclusively employ H1Bs or outsource to experienced scammers overseas. Your average US college graduate is just too likely to not understand, or at least care, that loose lips sink ships.
In this case, it's true the H1Bs would be doing a job that no US droid could do.
I spoke up about an employer partnering with a 3rd party "loyalty" company that blatantly violated PCI compliance, PII laws, and made deceptive credit card charges. It would destroy the company brand and was likely illegal. The CEO personally addressed the company to iterate what was being done to protect the company and customers. I quit because the place was a general shitshow. Years later I heard that they lost class action lawsuits. There was no insider leak because all the employees were lied to about how the 3rd party operated.
"If the product is FREE, then YOU are the PRODUCT!!"
My extended family loves Life360. I took one look at the EULA and all the permissions it wanted, and gave it an immediate "Nope!" I did, however, install it on one old phone which is no longer cellular activated and sits on my desk. I can monitor extended family that way. Any data submitted from the phone will show it never moving.
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