snapshot by progressive

i keep seeing the commercials about the plugin device progressive insurance will send you to analyze your driving habits so you maybe can get better insurance rates because you're a good driver, right?

it sounds like a great idea when they tell you about it but i have some concerns about privacy and even what you really are saving, if anything.

it turns out that i am not the only one with concerns, which makes me feel a little bit better about it, because when i don't see anybody else around me worried about things that worry me i start to lose hope for the future of this country and civilization in general.

here's the link to the progressive website's explanation of the thing, and to a pair of articles that seem to be pretty fair assessments of the device and the potential concerns and a slightly more alarmist article.

just for starters, i am concerned about the general trend these days in which people are only assumed innocent if they voluntarily surrender all their privacy because of course only guilty people need privacy. it is an idea that drives security theater and it's an idea that's dangerous in general to the idea of having a private life and privacy from government and corporate surveillance.

yes, i know i keep some blogs and i say some personal things in a public venue, but it is an informed choice and it is about wanting to tell my story or parts of my story and on the other side of that same coin i insist on only showing those things i want shared.

i reserve the right not to have to have my picture taken just in case i might be doing something bad later on.

no, it is NOT the cost of doing business.

but let's just put those concerns aside for a second, because even though the data that gets collected for your cheap car insurance could be as part of a larger trend to document and surveil you later, right now it's harmless.

right?

because progressive is a company that really cares about you.

if you're a progressive customer, they take care of you, good driver! nothing could possibly go wrong.

i'm sorry; i do not know how to proceed with this train of thought in heavy sarcasm mode.

but i do not want you to lose sight of the fact that progressive is the same company that lawyered up the man who killed one of their clients so that they wouldn't have to pay out a claim to her estate.


you might think twice before giving them the tools to do the same to you.