Senator Goes After 'Brazen' OnStar Privacy Shift 185
coondoggie writes "U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission to get the agency to investigate recent changes navigation and emergency services company OnStar made to its privacy practices. Schumer said, 'By tracking drivers even after they’ve cancelled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory. I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for FTC to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company’s actions constitute an unfair trade practice.'"
Re:What car does the senator drive? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure he did... (Score:4, Insightful)
Because two North American governments are major share holders [wikipedia.org] of this company, I am sure that tracking operations will immediately cease, because we all know governments hate doing shit like that.
Re:What car does the senator drive? (Score:5, Insightful)
He'll take a nice long vacation in the Bahamas with his secretary and never press the issue again.
You accuse someone you most likely know little about of committing future crimes and cheating on his wife of 30 years with no evidence whatsoever. If you would not want the government to do the same to you, maybe you could find it in your character to walk back those accusations.
Senator Charles Schumer is correct (Score:5, Insightful)
On-star has no more rights to the location of ex-customers than Texaco does.
Citizens should not be required to rip out the electronics to prevent a previous business partner from illegally spying on them.
In fact a good case can be made to legally require all corporations you cease doing business with to destroy all OLD records about you, with exceptions for records of transactions you engaged in. (see my blog entree from June [blogspot.com] for more information
Re:Good for the economy (Score:5, Insightful)
Consider this: the reason to want privacy may consist of illegal activities, but wanting privacy is not illegal in the slightest, and should never -ever- be construed as such.