Franken and Coons urge OnStar to reverse privacy changes

Democratic Sens. Al Franken (Minn.) and Chris Coons (Del.) urged OnStar Thursday to reconsider changes to its privacy policy that would allow the navigation provider to continue tracking the location of vehicles even after users cancel their service.

"In a nutshell, OnStar is telling its current and former customers that it can track their location anywhere, anytime — even if they cancel their subscriptions — and then give or sell that information to anyone as long as OnStar deems it safe to do so," the senators wrote in a letter to Linda Marshall, the CEO of OnStar.

"OnStar’s actions appear to violate basic principles of privacy and fairness for OnStar’s approximately six million customers — especially for those customers who have already ended their relationships with your company." 

OnStar sent emails to its customers last week notifying them of the changes to the company's policies.

The senators requested answers to a series of questions, including whether OnStar has suffered a breach of its customers' data and how it plans to use the location data. 

The senators said OnStar's actions underscore the need for new privacy laws to protect sensitive information such as consumers' location.

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