Would You Allow your Insurance Company to Monitor You to Get a Discount?

Published on December 26th, 2009

Suppose you went for this. If you also have life and health insurance with them, would they use this data to affect those insurance rates? Bad driving = accidents + health insurance costs. Add GPS tracking and damn! We see you practically live at McDonalds! Grocery store affinity card access: Coke, ice cream and pork rinds on every receipt? And then there’s the day when the government gains access to your movements. Paranoid? You have nothing to hide, right?

Would you be willing to let an insurance company electronically monitor your driving habits in return for a possible 25% cut in your premium? That’s the deal now offered in 19 states by Progressive Insurance, as it works to take its MyRate program national.

The company uses three criteria for the MyRate discount: defensive driving practices, low annual mileage (under 10,000 miles), and little driving after midnight.

The device Progressive installs in covered vehicles captures speed and time-of-day data, and from this can identify risky behavior such as jackrabbit starts and panic stops. Drivers are able to access their driving history online to make sure they are in compliance.

In case you’re wondering, the device is not GPS equipped, so it can’t tell the difference between a trip to church or the nudie bar, as long as the distances are the same.

20 users responded in " Would You Allow your Insurance Company to Monitor You to Get a Discount? "

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# 1 fromundacheese said, on December 26th, 2009 at 5:06 am

This is the first thing that came to mind after reading this story:

# 2 Eric said, on December 26th, 2009 at 6:54 am

You are already monitored in a course way. If you have a history of speeding or wrecks you pay more than someone who doesn’t.

# 3 tomyerex said, on December 26th, 2009 at 7:02 am

How do you make the leap from private insurance to a big brother state? You have the option to walk away and use a different insurance company; if this were state-sponsored you would have no choice.

# 4 Uncle Dave said, on December 26th, 2009 at 7:21 am

#3: The point is once the tech is in place, the government will eventually want to make use of it to control the population. Or, in government speak, “To make you safer.”

# 5 MR said, on December 26th, 2009 at 7:30 am

When looking for insurance 2 years ago, CAA quoted me $350/month (high as I had not been insured on a car before). If I let them put one of these things in it was $250. I had a few choice words for the guy and then went with someone else.

Oddly enough, that wasn’t my worst experience that day looking for the insurance…

# 6 brm said, on December 26th, 2009 at 7:40 am

Only if they make it impossibly expensive to afford without the monitoring. Which is what will happen. With a gov’t mandate.

“Can I not have the monitoring device?”

“yes, but the insurance will cost $5,000 a month.”

“see! you *can* opt out of it! what’s the big deal?!”

etc

# 7 Dr Dodd said, on December 26th, 2009 at 7:42 am

The Obamacrats are working at WARP speed to complete their massive power grab. Government will soon own the insurance industry creating a new way to pick our pockets under the guise of insurance premiums.

Add that to existing taxes and we have a recipe for oppression.

I have a bad feeling about this.

# 8 dusanmal said, on December 26th, 2009 at 8:10 am

Very bad “slippery slope”. Party not in command should seize the moment and offer bill banning this practice. But, will they?

# 9 tcc3 said, on December 26th, 2009 at 8:46 am

Playing poker where the dealer knows your hand. Insurance is gambling, and you know what they say about the house.

# 10 Norman Speight said, on December 26th, 2009 at 8:51 am

OK. You need a defensive position that has nothing to do with your insurance company.
So. This is what I do.
A firm called ‘Davis’ markets an OBD recorder for around $100.00. Look on the net you lazy sod, I’m not doing your research. This thing notes all the things that the insurance company bogie does. Fast speeds hard stops, hard accelerations etc. Difference is, it just plugs in to your OBD socket (on ALL cars after about 1996). Information is NOT user alterable. You can plug it into your computer and download all the details. Works an absolute treat. I’m delighted with mine, is unobtrusive, is personal. Insurance firms do make bogus claims on you and you can refute them from your device. By the way, Davis are in the USA, I am in England and I have absolutely NO contact with them except as a customer. By the way. If you have a bang it records all details, speed etc.
Best $100 I ever spent on my Jaguar S-Type.
I AIN’T PLUGGING! Just passing on good info.

# 11 GetReal said, on December 26th, 2009 at 9:24 am

Here’s what I want to know. After all the true horror stories about how big business (including the insurance industry) screws the hell out of everyone as a matter of policy, why do you fools still trust them?

And how does government screw you? You have to pay taxes.

A few points:

1) There’s no free lunch. You live here – you have to pay your way.

2) All private industry has only one legitimate goal – make as much profit as possible. And that’s OK.

3) At least with government you have a chance to try and vote out the people you don’t like.

4) If you “love your country” but always hate and fear your government, you are not a serious, clear thinking person.

# 12 GetReal said, on December 26th, 2009 at 9:29 am

One more point for my post, above.

There are literally industries devoted to making you afraid.

These range from media outlets (fear of government) to computer fear mongering.

Have you ever seen an ad from Symantec or McAfee that says, “No virus problems to fear this week.”?

# 13 eggman9713 said, on December 26th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

If the discount is big enough I might be willing for my car insurance company to monitor my driving HABITS, but not my driving LOCATIONS. ie, acceleration and braking habits, apparent weaving, sharp turns, and going above 70MPH (highest speed limit in my state). I would be willing to let them have data on how often I drive like a maniac because I don’t, but fuck them if they want to monitor where I go.

# 14 locomotivebreath1901 said, on December 26th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

“Would You Allow your Insurance Company to Monitor You to Get a Discount?”

I wouldn’t, but that *choice* by a private company – whose services I can freely accept or refuse – is infinitely superior to being compelled by an imperial federal gub’mint, under penalty of law, to their nanny state requirements of a rationed, single payer system.

**************(and you know its coming)
.

# 15 Breetai said, on December 26th, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Yup… No opting out and everyone in government is getting their cut. We’re pretty much fucked.

# 16 HeeHee said, on December 27th, 2009 at 7:46 am

# 14.

In case you didn’t know, most STATES have had mandatory auto insurance for decades. Communistic, isn’t it?

From what you say, I guess you don’t have medical insurance. If you did, you’d know what “rationing” was like when done by “only for profit” private companies.

So lets see. You have no health insurance, and you get real sick. I suggest you get into your pickup truck, carefully remove the gun from its rack, and drive into a tree. That way, your medical expenses are covered.

btw, I have more guns than you do, so don’t get pissy about the gun rack comment. It’s called humor.

# 17 LOWER CASE SCREEN NAME said, on December 27th, 2009 at 8:20 am

Not living much of a life if you drive less than 10000 miles a year. It couldn’t be legal to live that close to your job. More driving, with everythign that implies and entails creates a better society. Urban living is a big part of what’s destroying humanity.

# 18 tomyerex said, on December 27th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

#4 – Under normal circumstances, you may be right, but under the current economics…do you think the government has enough resources to monitor everyone and everything? After a certain point, there is so much data that the information you gather becomes too great. Besides, this is too obvious, the state would rather tap phone lines and directly monitor the population. Maybe this tech can be utilized in another way, but monitoring cell transmissions and data seems much easier and more fruitful.

# 19 LOWER CASE SCREEN NAME said, on December 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

#18 – You’re judging by the technology you know. You’re not factoring in the self-aware supermegaultra computing banks under the Rocky Mountains that can sift through this stuff with ease. They were build from alien technology researched at Area 51 you know. Way ahead of our publicly known tech.

# 20 insurance said, on December 29th, 2009 at 2:50 am

Not to sure where the USA insurance companies stand on disputing a genuine claim on the grounds of not disclosing information whether it is relevent or not like the UK insurance companies do and the sad thing is for many policy holders is that they are entitled to do so in the law that stands at the moment. Some of the UK laws go back to 1906 and have never been amended to stay up todate with the current times on this massive industry.

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