Jim Ross: Every day, data collectors learn more about us than we suspect

A few years ago I walked into a store operated by the world's largest retailer, and there displayed prominently was a slow cooker that could be turned on remotely over the internet. My first thought was, "I wonder who monitors how often we use that thing, and when."

It's no secret that the more we are connected, the less privacy we have. Everything we do on the internet is monitored and sold. According to the New York Times, if you own a car made by General Motors or some other companies, Big Brother could be watching how fast you drive and how hard you brake.

"Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies," published Monday, March 11, begins with the story of Ken Dahl of Seattle, who has never been responsible for an accident. When the cost of insuring his Chevrolet Bolt jumped 21%, he asked around. He learned LexisNexis, a New York-based global data broker with a division that supplies information to the auto insurance industry, had a 258-page report on his driving habits. The Fair Credit Reporting Act required LexisNexis to provide Dahl with the report.

The article describes what happened when Dahl read the report: "What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn't have is where they had driven the car."

It turns out that devices you can have installed in your car to (supposedly) help you be a better driver can also be used to track your driving habits. The same is true with apps. According to the Times, internet-enabled tools such as navigation aids, roadside assistance or locking and unlocking your car remotely can gather information that automakers sell to insurance companies.

You might unknowingly allow such surveillance when you sign up for some services. Permission could be buried in the fine print of your sales contract.

Most of us don't know just how much of our lives are being monitored. The thing with the slow cooker has had me wondering how much data collectors know about me and what points of entry I have given them into my life.

It's a given that if I go online to look for photos of a 1981 Ford Fairmont that I will soon see ads of Ford Fairmonts for sale. It goes beyond that. A national news organization a few years ago told of a man who discovered that his teenage daughter was pregnant because of data collection. When he began receiving ads for disposal diapers, he soon learned she had used his credit card to buy a home pregnancy test.

There are some things I will buy with my debit card, and there are some things I won't. The data collectors probably will figure out what those other things are, but I want to make it more difficult for them.

As for cars, I've often thought they're getting too complicated anyway. I'm so old, I remember when a steering wheel was for steering and for honking a horn. Not counting the horn, the steering wheel of my wife's car has 17 buttons. I have no idea what some of them are for. My best guess is they have something to do with the multitude of electronic warning devices and gizmos that can make driving safer, but after reading the article in the Times, they also make me wonder if any of them monitor how she drives. (For the record, I trust her driving more than I trust mine.)

There are days when I yearn for a simpler vehicle. If you can drive a car from the 1980s or maybe a basic version from the early 1990s, you'll see how much cars have changed and how they've given data collectors more access to how you drive.

With a modern vehicle, there's no such thing as getting away by yourself for a while. Big Brother tags along.

So if you think I wonder how much Big Data spies on people like you and me, let's say I figure they already know more about me than I do. I picked up on this years and years ago when I did an article about the introduction of the Kroger card. Save money by letting your grocery store collect and store information about your shopping habits, I thought.

At least when I read a print newspaper, no one knows what articles I read and how I do on the Sudoku that day. I'll take these small victories when I can get them.

Jim Ross is development and opinion editor of The Herald-Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].