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Ford Eyes Use of Customers' Personal Data To Boost Profits (threatpost.com) 79

Posted by BeauHD from the it's-only-a-matter-of-time dept.
According to industry-watchers, Ford is looking to profit off the data it can collect from its 100 million customers. In addition to the data collected from its infotainment systems and mobile apps, "Ford's CEO recently suggested that the data collected by the company's financial services arm also represents a valuable, low-overhead asset," reports Threatpost. From the report: "We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles," said Ford CEO Jim Hackett during a Freakonomics Radio podcast. "The issue in the vehicle, see, is: We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us. We know what people make. How do we know that? It's because they borrow money from us. And when you ask somebody what they make, we know where they work, you know. We know if they're married. We know how long they've lived in their house because these are all on the credit applications. We've never ever been challenged on how we use that. And that's the leverage we got here with the data."

The comments, which were amplified by several auto-industry sources and the Detroit Free Press, sparked alarm in the Twitterverse. Against the backdrop of privacy disasters at Facebook and other stalwarts of the internet economy, the fear for many is that Ford sees selling access to consumers based on their lifestyle as a way forward. Is Ford considering selling consumer data as a revenue stream? Hackett stopped short of saying that -- and indeed, the data could instead simply be useful to the company internally, as a way to increase the value (and profit) of its other businesses.
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Ford Eyes Use of Customers' Personal Data To Boost Profits More

Ford Eyes Use of Customers' Personal Data To Boost Profits

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  • CEOs are sociopaths (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @07:34PM (#57676738)

    Every last one of them. That he would make such comments in the middle of the current privacy scandals shows an incredible lack of sensitivity and respect for their customers.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by guruevi ( 827432 )

      So you want them to be quiet and do it?

      If you don't think this has been going on for decades, then you're an idiot.

      • Connected cars haven't existed for "decades" in the sense they do now. Credit data? Sure. But not user movements and real time location tracking.

        • Connected cars haven't existed for "decades" in the sense they do now.

          They mostly still don't exist. Most cars, and even most new cars, do not have tracking built in. Specifically, Ford cars don't. There is "Ford Sync" that can track you, but only if you install the app, and plug your phone into the console while you are driving.

          Credit data? Sure.

          This is what he is referring to: Data collected while processing credit applications.

          Car companies have been financing cars for 30 years. For many years, GM made more money from loans than from manufacturing.

    • And the business school profs who teach them how to be better predators are also sociopathic trash...
    • Ford's customers aren't HIS customers. His customers are shareholders/investors. People want to blame CEOs, but who demands profit growth year-over-year, quarter-by-quarter? No business - none, can survive that forever. There comes a point that you've reached your maximum market saturation. You've eeked out every red cent you can eek out. There's nothing left to be done. Yet the maul that is Wallstreet continues to demand. So this is the next logical step.

      Wallstreet is the sociopath we need to be conce
  • I'm not their customer, I don't trust them and I paid cash for my car.

  • Fuck Ford... (Score:3)

    by b0s0z0ku ( 752509 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @07:51PM (#57676846)
    hope they go bankrupt as they should have done in 2008. Not that this problem is unique to Ford -- any car with a 3g/4g modem built in is basically spying on its owner. At least there's a solution (for now) -- icepick through the antenna cable... This is why I love paying cash for efficient 90s cars. No spyware garbage built in.
    • Not that Ford will have anything I want to buy now that their entire US lineup of cars is going away other than the Mustang. I have no love for muscle cars, SUVs, or pickups. Focus was decent while it has lasted, though.

    • Re:Fuck Ford... (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @06:07AM (#57678574) Homepage Journal

      Why don't you just demand laws to stop this kind of thing? We have them in Europe. My Leaf had a 3G modem, and if I didn't agree to sharing data every time I started the car no data would be shared. If Nissan did share it I could complain to the data regulator, they could be fined a percentage of global turnover etc.

      Actually I can answer my own question. Corporations write your laws and own your politicians, which means they own you.

  • No IoT for me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DidgetMaster ( 2739009 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @08:06PM (#57676912) Homepage
    This is precisely why I do buy IoT devices and do not subscribe to 'services' that send my personal information to somebody's 'cloud'. They will sell you out the first chance they get to make a buck at your expense. If you can control it with your phone, then you don't own the data it creates. It is sitting on somebody else's server and they can do whatever they want with it. Even if they promise (in writing no less) that they will never share it, they will. This goes for your video doorbell, your alarm system, your smart lighting system, your sprinkling system, etc., etc..

  • Not all customers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    finance. I've never financed a car, ever. If I cannot afford a new car, I do not buy one. So they will NOT know how much I make, or where I work. Frankly, all that info is in the credit reporters, and they sell it already. So sorry ford, you have been beaten to the punch. They can track your location, but so does google/apple. So again, nothing new. Pretty soon it is going to be a buyers market for data. You want to buy data, well car company, make me an offer better than google. Google make me a better off

    • Ford's privacy policy specifically says that they can give your driver information to your insurance company. That info isn't anonymized.
      Like to speed? Have to hit the brakes too hard too often? Be prepared to pay extra for that.

  • I didn't think I could hate Ford more than I do (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NikeHerc ( 694644 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @08:24PM (#57676978)
    As a former owner of a piece of crap Ford Taurus, I didn't think I could hate Ford any more than I already do.

    I was wrong.
    • Yes - if they do this, F*** Ford - If they do this I may never own another Ford. Do we know other MFGs *don't* do this (GMAC?)? And also for the Taurus, but a lot of it's contemporaries were crap. As an aside I drove a 1991 Ford Escort 272Kmi with only maintenance and 2 clutch changes before giving it away running. I drove a 1999 V6 mustang 345Kmi with only maintenance and also 2 clutch changes before trading it in (Salesman literally came in to ask if the digital odometer was correct) on my current 20
      • What are you doing to destroy so many clutches?
        • After thinking about it I believe I only did one clutch in the Escort at 190K miles of stop and go traffic. The old Mustang got one at 125K miles and 225k and its first 200K was in stop and go traffic (with hill-holds and such). And the clutches were really OK, in each case it was the throwout bearings that died. But once you have RnR'd the trans... That is still averaging ~140k miles each. How many miles would you think for a clutch in LA traffic?

  • Well, congratulations Ford. Well, you've assured I will not purchase a car from you. What a stupid negative marketing move. Gee, who will want to finance through you from now on. Especially since this is one of your big money makers.

  • Why the sudden concern? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So people are up in arms about automakers collecting location data, but OK with cell phones, Facebook, etc. doing the same thing?

  • Watch their stock drop like a rock now. Over the years Ford has made a lot of very bad decisions like this one. I remember Ford ambulances spontaneously exploding after they were run hard (this was in the late 80's). It was caused by thin cheap low-carbon metal gas tanks and exhaust system parts. They had the same attitude about it as with the Pinto - it's cheaper to pay burn death victims's families that it is to fix their crappy vehicles.

  • I read Ford's privacy policy... (Score:3)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @09:07PM (#57677178)

    ...for their Vehicle Health Report Service and swore that I'd never use it. They don't/won't disclose the data they collect nor what they'll use it for (Summary: "We reserve the right to do anything we want with the data that gets uploaded"), and I swore that I'd never buy a Ford again. Reading TFA makes that even more of a promise.
    (Yes, other companies may be as bad, but they haven't pissed me off like Ford has. Orphaning the the MS MyFord Touch system WHILE THE CAR WAS STILL UNDER WARRANTY was unforgivable.)

  • And so it begins...

  • Rope and pulley, carburated, manual choke, direct connection from toe to brakes (with hydraulics in the middle)

    No GPS, no wifi, no CAN, no CPUs, no ECUs, No data. NO CARRIER

    Just a light nimble little tincan with 4 wheels and 2 seats. I don't need anything more.

    Fuck this modern data-sucking privacy-invading life. Fuck it hard and long, with a splintered phone pole.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • We already know and have data on our customers. By the way, we protect this securely; they trust us.

    Not any more.

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