[LINK] Sometimes I am surprised.

[David]

The TechSpot article reads, inter alia:

> Unlike conventional systems that use dedicated, expensive seismic instruments, Google's Android Earthquake Alerts system leverages the sheer scale of smartphones, which continuously collect motion data unless users opt out.

The insurance industry is well aware of this potential for unwitting data collection, and TachSpot also records:

> Earlier this year, the New York Times dropped a bomb on drivers of connected vehicles: manufacturers collect and sell their driving data to insurance companies, which use the information to set rates for individual drivers.  Now, a new report shows that this type of data collection is more ubiquitous than even dystopian-minded privacy advocates might have realized.
> 
> Information about driving habits is also being collected by apps that are only tangentially related to automobiles. You may already have one installed on your phone.

Not long ago a DuckDuckGo Privacy newsletter reported that a US insurance company had lost a Court action because they'd been doing just that (using their own app) then offering different rates to their customers without informing them.

Antony Barry's example and this one are great examples of my original point.

_DavidL_

On Friday, 25 July 2025 15:33:22 AEST Antony Barry wrote:
> Very occasionally I read something and my initial reaction is "that's absurd" followed by "hang on a moment that's brilliant".
> 
> https://www.techspot.com/news/108732-google-using-two-billion-android-phones-detect-earthquakes.html?lctg=1980929&utm_source=digitaltrends&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:1980929&utm_campaign=DTDaily20250721