The press release from Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R-Montana) identifies the companies as Ford Motor Company and Stellantis N.V., makers of brands such as Chrysler, Ram, Jeep and Dodge.
"We have some reports here in Montana to our Office of Consumer Protection that a couple of the large automakers in America were tracking people," Knudsen tells AFN. "They were selling their tracking information … to third parties, including data aggregating companies and insurance companies."
Data aggregation companies collect information from multiple sources, combine it and organize it into a single dataset or product that can be analyzed, sold or licensed for marketing and advertising targeting, credit and risk scoring, identity verification, fraud detection, background checks and market research and analytics.
So, GPS data collected from cars could be used to market Starbucks to someone who drives to Starbucks a lot. Information about someone who drives over the speed limit could also be sold to an insurance company, which could then be reflected in that person's insurance premium.
But this could run afoul of Montana's strong privacy laws and the Consumer Protection Act. That is why Knudsen is looking into it.
He says companies are normally good about responding, but if he is not satisfied with the answers he gets from these auto companies, civil investigative demands in Montana are like subpoenas and have the force of law.
"If needs be, we can take the next step and we can get these enforced in Montana District Court," the attorney general explains.
Noting that "we're a country that believes in privacy," he insists every American should be concerned about their data being sold without their consent, and he hopes other states will take a look at this situation.
"With modern technology, all the automakers have GPS technology in their newer vehicles, and we're being tracked at all times," Knudsen says. "Some people are comfortable with that, but if that tracking system is keeping track of where you're going, keeping track of how much you drive, where you drive to, how fast you drive, we have to ask ourselves: is that the kind of society that we want to live in?"
