GPS seen as threat to privacy (query by a finance company to put GPS devices in vehicles it finances

[Maine-ah]

http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Statewide/GPS-data-intruding-on-privacy,151289

AUGUSTA, Maine — Those handy GPS devices that help you find a restaurant while driving around on vacation can also be used to track your car wherever it goes. Who has access to that tracking ability is of growing concern to state officials in the wake of a query by a finance company to put GPS devices in vehicles it finances.

The State Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection confirmed that it recently received a query from an out of state finance company about placing GPS devices in financed vehicles.

“We were asked by an out of state lawyer representing an auto finance company whether we would object to installation of GPS units on cars that serve as collateral,” bureau of consumer credit protection superintendent Will Lund said last week. He said the purpose cited by the lawyer was for the secondary finance market for car loans to help determine whether a loan contract was a good credit risk for the finance company.

It would work like this:

A purchaser whose financing was handled by a company that planned to sell the loan to the secondary market would have a GPS device installed in the vehicle as a condition of completing the purchase. Data from the GPS would accrue during the weeks or months between the purchase and the sale of the loan to the secondary market.

[Recursion]

1. It's their (the finance company's) car, isn't it?

At least until you've paid for it.

[nightrain]

4. it's our money and privacy though... don't be so quick to give either away...

[Recursion]

6. This is why I avoid the debt economy

Even if that means buying a shitty used car that breaks down a lot.

[Maine-ah]

8. my thoughts exactly

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Ufucking believable.

Next thing: anyone who owes money has be chipped and tracked.

[liberal N proud]

3. How tracking where a vehicle goes helps to determine risk is beyond me

Sounds like they just want to track some information they can sell to marketers.

There is a used car company that puts cut off devices like lo-jack in the cars they finance. These are cars that are marketed to lower income people and usually are not good quality cars to begin with.

If you miss a payment, they flip the switch and you can't start the car.

[sendero]

10. I can help you with that..

.. it's so it's easy to recover a "skipped" car.

[liberal N proud]

11. If you are worried about that, don't loan me the money.

If I am a risk of "skipping," make me pay cash!

[sendero]

12. Uh..

... I was in the car biz a while and in an economy like this there a plenty of skips. Guy loses job, does NOT want to lose his car too so he makes it hard to find.

I'm not necessarily defending these devices, I'm explaining them. Nobody adds several hundred dollars of cost to each car with no reason.

[DJ13]

5. Only if the finance company reduced interest as an offset

Somehow I bet that requirement would squash this kind of thinking.

[mike r]

7. This ought to be made illegal

[iamtechus]

9. Fuck with big brother before he fucks with you ..

There are all sorts of electronic goodies available to foil big brother's tracking schemes. Follow the link to see some.

http://www.chinavasion.com/index.php/cName/security-equipment-jammers/

Just flip a switch and disappear from their tracking system!