Google and Amazon’s expansion into car infotainment systems and their use of surveillance capitalism, is well documented. But according to our poll, drivers aren’t sold on tech companies cashing in on their behavioural surplus.
We found 75% of drivers don’t want any kind of data monitoring devices in their car, almost 90% said they wouldn’t want their car to share driving habit data with third parties, and only 10% know if their car is under a data agreement.
532 people were polled over a weekend on our website. The results show the vast majority of people don’t want their cars snooping on them.
Parkers.co.uk Editor, Keith Adams, says: ‘It’s true that we’re agreeing to all manner of terms and conditions on a daily basis – I shudder to think what Google knows about me – but it comes as a surprise to see so few drivers are aware of what their car knows about them.
‘It suggests that carmakers need to make their data gathering more transparent, their agreements easier to read and, most importantly for the 75% of drivers who don’t want it, easier to opt out of.’
It’s clear there’s disparity between what data gathering people want and what they’re getting. But should you be worried by the cyber capitalism techniques being used to capture data on you in your car?
Shoshana Zuboff’s role in surveillance capitalism and behavioural surplus
The kind of digital surveillance techniques we’re talking about aren’t as scary as they sound. They’re routinely used to capture data from your phone, computer, tablet, TV or any other device that’s connected to the internet.
The terms surveillance capitalism and behavioural surplus were coined by psychologist and Professor Emerita of Harvard Business School, Shoshana Zuboff. In her book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Zuboff writes that surveillance capitalism ‘unilaterally claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioural data.’
Some of this data is applied to service improvement, while the rest is declared as a behavioural surplus.
Surveillance capitalism translates your data. Behavioural surplus takes some of that data and uses it to make predictions about you.
The first musings on the subject were found in academic journals published in 2015 but Zubroff’s book wasn’t released until 2018.
> The rise of connected services
> What your car knows about you
> Your behavioral data and how it’s used
The rise of connected services
Google essentially invented the practice of extracting behavioural surplus. While its known primarily as a search engine, Google’s core business is analysing who searches for what and selling that data onto third party companies.
There are data collection and analysis companies (sometimes referred to as surveillance capitalists) that specialise in collecting data from cars. One such is Otonomo, an Israeli company that floated on the NASDAQ stock exchange for $1.4 billion in 2021. It ingests more than four billion data points per day from over 40 million vehicles.
Automotive manufacturers buy that data from Otonomo to create ‘new revenue streams by enabling the utilisation of the vast amounts of data vehicles generate on a daily basis.’ That translates to creating new products and services the manufacturers feel their customers will want, based on analysis of Otonomo’s data.
Otonomo is a data aggregator and integrates many different data providers and sources to create the most attractive and comprehensive data pool. It measures many parameters while a car is in use including throttle position, number of passengers, speed, and trip duration.
BMW is just one of the car companies that works with Otonomo. BMW UK told Parkers: ‘Otonomo is a trusted partner for BMW CarData. This ‘personal data’ only concerns ‘personal vehicle data’ and not actual/real personal data.’
That means companies like Otonomo take your data, remove any personal information and package it up for other companies to buy.
How do car manufacturers, data companies, Google and Facebook harvest your car-related data? Primarily through connected services. That’s the term used for cars that have an internet connection that allows you to use an phone app to control certain features and view information about the car. You might, for instance, be able to see how much fuel is in the car, send a destination to the satnav, turn the climate control on or even remotely start the car’s engine. Data about how you use your car and where you go is collected via these apps.
Data is also collected through a car’s infotainment system. Get into a car that’s new to you, whether you’ve bought it, rented it, or borrowed it, and the system will ask you to sign a user agreement, then set up a personalised user profile for you. That allows you to specify your preferences for thinks like the radio station and ambient lighting, maybe even the driving position. But it also collects anonymised data about you.
Why do car manufacturers collect this data? Kia, for instance, uses notification alerts on its latest UVO Connect infotainment system to offer customers information on recalls. However, Kia’s Manager of Connected Car Product Planning, Sebastián Salera, says the same system could also be used for marketing and finance offers. Kia is currently ‘undecided’ about whether it will actually use that capability, but has admitted it’s possible.
Kia’s system is even clever enough to know when your finance agreement is up and it understands your driving habits. With that information, Kia could suggest which one of its cars you should get next and offer you a suitable finance package.
What your car knows about you
Any car with an app most likely knows where you are, any regular routes you take and where the car’s parked at night. Car-related phone apps can track and measure you in even more specific ways than the car can, as well.
During our nine months with a Volvo XC90, Volvo processed ‘personal data for customer management’ including creating an online and social profile.
While Volvo’s app-based service does record data like the car’s location, this kind of personal information is removed as soon as you hand the car back. We requested the data Volvo held on us and it had indeed deleted all specifics.
What does Volvo do with your data? It discloses personal data to other companies also owned by Geely and to various business partners. They can be retailers, market researchers, research and development partners, social media companies and Volvo’s own IT providers.
All this data allows your car to figure out where you are and why. But cars are also smart enough to determine things about you while you’re driving. Every new car now has a driver alertness monitor that can tell if you’re tired or distracted.
Subaru‘s system uses a camera and infrared LED discreetly mounted on top of the dashboard’s central information display to monitor your eye and head movements for signs of distraction or drowsiness.
Less sophisticated measuring devices include the ‘black box’ that insurance companies now insist young drivers have in their car. They typically record the time and duration of a journey, the car’s speed, how many revs are used and the severity of braking. That information is used to determine if a driver’s premium should be increased to lowered, whether to pay a claim, or even if a renewal should be refused.
Your behavioral data and how it’s used
Writing in Dealer Marketing Magazine, former Cambridge Analytica chief risk officer, Duke Perrucci, said that his analytic methods revealed: ‘How a customer wants to be sold to, what their personality type is, and which methods of persuasion are most effective.’ He added: ‘It only takes small improvements in conversion rates for a dealership to see a dramatic shift in revenue.’
Chief economist of Google, Hal Varian, wrote in the American Economic Review: ‘Because transactions are now computer-mediated we can observe behaviour that was previously unobservable and write contracts on it. This enables transactions that were simply not feasible before.
‘Nowadays it’s a lot easier just to instruct the vehicular monitoring system not to allow the car to be started and to signal the location where it can be picked up.’
In the future car manufacturers look set to roll things like your data, finance, and servicing into an app. Mark Aryaeenia is the CEO of vehicle data company, Verex. It exclusively manages the connected data for 13 car makers in the UK including Jaguar Land Rover, Renault, and Mazda.
He told Parkers: ‘Car manufacturers are very much stuck in a product-centric approach, and they want to move away from it. They want to bring all different car ownership prospects, including electric charging, into one reference point – a brand’s app. This helps manufacturers transition into services too.’
What this means for you
Your car knows a lot about you but there’s currently little evidence of manufacturers actually doing much with that knowledge. One way car companies are looking to cash in on some of that knowledge is by offering additional car features that you can buy during ownership.
Skoda offers drivers of its cheaper models the ability to upgrade features from inside the car. For instance, Octavia SE customers have the option of upgrading to auto-dip headlights for a one off payment of £179. This includes unlimited access to the feature, which is turned on by over-the-air update, and is transferable from owner to owner.
BMW does something similar. We’ve experienced this in a BMW 530e. There’s a physical button for adaptive high beam (where the car automatically dips the beam for you) on the indicator stalk. Press it and a message pops up in the instrument display saying ‘function acquirable’, adding that you can buy it for £160. Similarly, Mercedes EQS owners have to pay £420 per year for options such as enhanced rear-wheel steering.
Buying stuff from behind the wheel will continue to weasel its way into everyday life thanks to Google. The Polestar 2 was the first car with an infotainment system running Google’s Android Automotive operating system. According to Polestar’s website, that means the 2 ‘will soon be a shop you can buy things in.’ Polestar’s UK representatives admit that what you’ll be able to buy largely depends on what Google offers.
Lex Kerssemakers is the head of global commercial operations for Polestar’s parent company, Volvo. He told Parkers: ‘We absolutely will use data to tailor make offers to customers. We went through thousands of legal pages to go with Google.
‘Going with Google means we open up potential for other business opportunities. We’re exploring different options with Google. How we can leverage that remains to be seen.’
Google did not respond to questions about its continued expansion into cars.
Verex CEO, Mark Aryaeenia, added: ‘Car companies are thinking far ahead into the future. For instance, an autonomous car has a captive audience. Imagine the e-commerce opportunities it has.’
Polestar defends sharing data with Google by saying: ‘The vehicle data Google has access to in a bid to improve the driving experience would include things like Google Maps needing to know the battery status so it can help plan routes and charging stops.’
Ford has also partnered with Google. Some of its latest models have Google Assistant voice control functionality, Google maps, and Google Play store built-in.
Ford reckons the partnership ‘will unlock personalised consumer experiences.’ A Ford spokesperson added that the system ‘allows us to have a more intimate relationship with a customer, because their behaviour in a vehicle will make all our interactions personalised.’
Ford UK told Parkers it’s too early to speculate how this might affect UK customers.
Both Ford and Polestar are keen to point out that customers’ data will only be shared with Google and not third-party companies.
Other manufacturers have linked up with Amazon to offer Alexa Auto services in their cars including Audi, MINI and Land Rover.
Should you be worried?
Worried is a strong word. For now, we’d hazard a guess at no. But it really comes down to personal preference.
On the one hand, you might think that because most of the data shared is anonymous, there’s not much to worry about. If you live in the UK, you’re already under universal surveillance. So what’s one more pair of eyes looking at you?
On the other hand is the rise of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. These services being plumbed into cars shows insight into the digital future, and it seems like one where your car will be implicit in the adverts shown to you.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Zuboff said: ‘They’re feeding AIs with data in order to predict behaviour. Virtually everything we do that has an internet touchpoint is a supply chain interface. These companies are constantly capturing behavioural data from us.
‘They have engineered ways of doing this, designed to keep us ignorant…it’s designed to be hidden. They’re using this knowledge to target us. To get us to manipulate our behaviour or attitudes in ways that align with their commercial objectives.’
Thanks to the connected car, in the future your digital profile will be more complete. Whether that bothers you is personal.
