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GM announced it has changed its mind regarding plans to allow its OnStar telematic service to continue tracking former members of the service and then sell that collected location data to third parties.
Bowing to the public pressure that such changes would violate personal privacy, OnStar President Linda Marshall said in a press release:
We realize that our proposed amendments did not satisfy our subscribers. This is why we are leaving the decision in our customers' hands. We listened, we responded and we hope to maintain the trust of our more than 6 million customers.
Previously, OnStar notified customers that come December, data from a customer vehicle would continue to be transmitted to OnStar after service was canceled, unless the customer called and asked for it to be shut off. Moreover, the revamped OnStar service policy also allowed GM to sell such data to third-parties—to local highway traffic services, for example.
The proposed changes drew ire from users and privacy advocates online, which also caught law-makers attention. Earlier today, Senator Charles Schumer called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate GM's proposed policy changes.
OnStar Reverses Decision to Change Terms and Conditions [OnStar]
—Maggie Shader
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