Ford Eyes Use of Customers’ Personal Data to Boost Profits
Just like any other good hackernews reader, I read the comments first and only then decide whether to read the article. As I read this post and there were no comments, I&#x27;ll take the liberty of trying to provide a nice comment that might or might not induce you to read the rest of the article.<p>Ford CEO Jim Hackett said this in a podcast:<p>&gt;“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.”<p>He explicitly stated &quot;we protect this securely&quot;, a statement that I am extremely cautious about and wouldn&#x27;t touch with a ten feet pole. Just this statement from the CEO has cemented my idea to never ever buy a Ford wagon.<p>Of course, a backlash on Twitter ensued, as some user responded:<p>&gt;“I heard it yesterday, and was appalled,” tweeted another. “No concern whatsoever for privacy and no reflection on whether or not this is a GOOD thing. Talked about linking with personal medical data while in the vehicle. No thought to ethical considerations. Another Zuckerberg. Disturbing.”<p>Ford is failing financially and as Ford is a company, it will do anything to stay alive, self-preservation, very human, but of course a company would rather stay alive exploiting our data than to make a gracious exit:<p>&gt;With sales of vehicles flagging worldwide, the company is finding itself running out of financial freeway, so to speak. And even in the U.S., its strongest market, Ford is seeing little vehicular success of late beyond sales of its trucks and SUVs). Accordingly, the automaker is wisely taking steps to be more fully integrated into people’s lives, by expanding into ancillary businesses that at first would seem to run counter to its mission.<p>The beginning of the post is basically fear mongering (and I&#x27;m glad I read on) as later a Spokesperson for Ford is being quoted saying the following:<p>&gt;“In the podcast ... Jim Hackett was painting a picture of the future possibilities of data use given the long-term relationship and trust we have with our customers,” she said. “Specifically, it is important to know we do not sell or monetize information from customer credit applications. We take seriously our obligations related to how we use this information. With regard to all data use, we are committed to protecting customer privacy and we do that by ensuring transparency and appropriate consent in the collection and use of all customer data.”<p>In the end it says this<p>&gt;This story was updated at 5:25 p.m. EST with comments from Ford’s spokesperson.<p>In other words, this article was first published without quotes from the spokesperson, maybe Ford saw the article and felt pressured?<p>Anyway, I think the article is mostly fear-mongering amongst our more privacy oriented people, but at the same time I will keep a closer eye on Ford.