Data Protection??

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brucemillar

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Friends. I may well be unintentionally misleading with my title. Apologies if so. You will (I am sue) work it out.

So. Daughter has passed her driving test. Bought her own new(ish) car.
Insured herself with help from Dad.

Her insurer insisted on a “Black Box” being installed in the car, on a permanent basis, for the first 12 months. All good so far.

Now I find that in the event of her commuting a whoopsie that triggers the call home on the “Black Box” she is informed that she has a “strike” logged against her record. Three strikes can lead to her policy being cancelled. All good and understood.

What troubles me (I have not tested it) is that the insurer does not need disclose what the “Strike” entailed. It could be any number of events/triggers from the box and not just the obvious ones: speeding etc.

It includes bad driving - but does not say what that is?

My friends Son has already fallen foul of this with the insurer refusing to disclose what his misdemeanour was.
This seems rather pointless to me. Would they not want the insured to understand and correct their behaviour?

Curious am I.


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I too can't see the point of the insurer not disclosing details of the misdemeanour as it would give the driver an opportunity to correct or avoid the behaviour concerned.

Being the sort of awkward soul that I am, I'd slap the insurer with a GDPR Subject Data Access Request.
 
This article is quite interesting. I was particularly struck by the remarks about driving in 60mph zones being a bit of a minefield and the driving erratically as opposed to pure speeding. Some systems seem to give you warnings?

QUOTE:-
Telematics devices know which type of road the driver is on, and find that young and inexperienced drivers handle winding roads poorly.
“When you are on a country road with a 60mph limit, you shouldn’t be doing anywhere near 60mph,” says Vaughan. “What young people need is more help in understanding where it is inappropriate to drive near the limit.”
Crispin Moger of Marmalade says: “Many newly qualified drivers still are too scared to drive on motorways. This results in them spending more time on rural roads. With narrow lanes, blind corners and slow-moving vehicles, these can be far more dangerous than the motorway: according to information published on gov.uk, 80% of young driver fatalities occur on rural roads.”



Motoring myths: what ‘black boxes’ reveal about our driving habits
 
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An SAR will only lead to them disclosing what PII (Personally identifiable information) they have.
It is odd that that wont tell you what the boundaries are (it could be as simple and managable as a night time curfew.....)
You should be able to find a phone number and speak to someone...?
Else change insurer before she gets a black mark on her policy / record :eek:
 
I would imagine that the insurer will be trying to avoid protracted discussion over the perceived misdemeanours.

The scenario could be one where the driver is presented with their data which they, then, argue (as is the default position with some people these days) that the data is wrong.

What follows is tons of jibber-jabber between the two parties, tying up the ins co's time until the policy actually lost them money without a claim being made.

Or, maybe, they are just nasty.
 
Change insurer, black boxes should be avoided like the plague and often work out dearer than policies without them.

Insured both my daughters from age 17 both before and after passing the test, neither needed black boxes using comparison searches and Admiral.

One drives a Fiat Picanto 1.1 chill (understandably cheap) the other was in a Peugeot 205 1.2. The latter moved to a Fiesta 1.4 in year 2 (18 years old) and then an SLK 2.0 kompressor year 3 aged 19.



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Ditto - Admiral - our 17 year old (now 19) wasn't required to have one either (nor do we - phew...;))
 
Ditto - Admiral - our 17 year old (now 19) wasn't required to have one either (nor do we - phew...;))

It’s an interesting subject. Our research was based on finding a quality insurer that does what they say (not always easy)

Then these is the very obvious cost consideration aligned to the cost being rewarded for good behaviour etc. The list goes on.

What we found was that “Black Box” is becoming the norm. In our case it was almost impossible to get around it.

Our has zero curfew and a few less downsides than others. But it is still included and now installed and transmitting.

My friends Sons case opened a train of thought with me that his insurer could easily cherry pick based on their own circumstances at any given point.

Oh. She does have the app that does trigger alerts. Although apart from telling her the car has moved etc she has not used or use of.

It does add an edge when I have driven her car. You certainly watch. Imagine Dad getting daughter clobbered by her insurer. Not good.


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Hi,
I really hate these ‘big brother” products that are often unfairly weighted against the consumer.
I wouldn’t mind so much if the insurers offered more transparency and sent you a report on a weekly/monthly basis that shows your driving performance against some meaningful parameters - actual speed vs speed limit, plotted against time and distances travelled, severity of braking, severity of steering inputs and acceleration - all things that show whether a driver is smooth or erratic in their driving style.
The current systems all seem a bit too arbitrary - with the insurance companies playing judge and juror and little chance to appeal.
I dread when my 13 year old son is old enough to drive!
Cheers
Steve
 
Obvious question to me, if the insurer does not disclose the strikes, they can easily say three strikes, take your money and you have no recourse? Cannot be right.
Exactly why they should be avoided at all cost, insurers find any excuse to avoid liability already (e.g.. you failed to tell us you changed jobs from being a F1 test driver to a Librarian, had we been made aware of your change of circumstances we would have declined to insure you etc)., these devices are simply a licence to avoid any risks on their part...

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