This isn’t the least bit stalkerish, nope…
Every move you make, every breath you take, Ford and Wejo will be monitoring you – or something like that. I’m old enough to remember when connected vehicles were first becoming a thing in the automotive industry. A few crazy individuals said it would be a way for the government and big corporations which act like governments to track your every movement, learns your habits, and in general act like creepy stalkers. Now that connected cars are pretty commonplace, we know that’s just not true because as the government and companies like Ford and Wejo track your every move, they’re doing it for your safety and well-being.
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Ford and Wejo have officially joined forces to tag and track Europeans like livestock, only the people being tracked gladly paid good money for their tracking devices. Now, Wejo has “access to personalized connected vehicle data from Ford vehicles across the continent” per a recent press release. Nothing creepy about that.
It gets even better: Wejo plans to provide your “personalized connected vehicle data” to insurance companies so they can understand all your little driving behaviors better. That might mean your rates will change, likely in the negative sense. Plus, as they rifle through your personal data these insurance providers benefit by “minimizing fraud” like when you say you drive that sports car only on the weekends. Isn’t the internet of things great?
Now, to be clear Wejo isn’t doing this with any nefarious intentions. CEO Richard Barlow is even quoted as saying the turning over of your driving data to insurance providers is “to monetize connected vehicle data for good.” You see, they’re making a ton of money tracking your movements to help you pay whatever the insurance companies in the moment decide you should under the threat of legal action if you drive without insurance coverage. How could anyone be mad about that?
Technically, you as the user have to provide your consent for Wejo to hand your information over to your insurance provider, at least for now. Once everyone sees how great this brave new world system works, then the work can begin to eliminate that troublesome detail.
Even more exciting, this new collaboration between Wejo and Ford won’t stop just at mining Europeans’ driving data to rat you out to insurance companies. According to the rather enthusiastic press release, they’re working on expanding into other markets. So this intrusion of privacy might be coming to North America in the near future.
Just remember, Wejo and Ford will be watching you every step you take, every move you make, and every vow you break. Lucky you.
