OnStar forgoes changes to terms-and-conditions policy

OnStar isn’t going through with a proposed policy change that would allow the company to continue to monitor a vehicle’s speed and location after a customer cancels OnStar services.

On Sept. 19, OnStar notified customers that the company was making changes to its terms-and-conditions policy. Beginning Dec. 1, 2011, a customer’s vehicle data would continue to be transmitted to OnStar even after a customer canceled OnStar’s services. Under the new policy, the monitoring service would end when a customer opted out of the service or asked for the service to be shut off.

OnStar’s decision comes on the heels of Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) request that Federal Trade Commission launch an investigation into OnStar’s new policy terms, because he believes that the terms constitute an invasion of privacy.

OnStar states that, for emergency-notification purposes, the data connection would have remained active after cancellation