Few know how much data they collect. And who has access to it.

On Board Diagnostics – a system that records data about engine operation – has been around since the mid-1990s. GM's OnStar system goes back even farther. The latest systems go much further.

They can record – and transmit – data about your movements and your preferences, both of which are of great interest to corporations interested in making money by selling information about you to interested parties. And also to the government and its lampreys, such as the insurance mafia – which is very interested in how you drive. 

What's most interesting, though, is that all of this information about you is – somehow – not under your control, even though you are the legal owner of the car. The fact that the information the car collects can be mined without your consent establishing the odd fact.

It's possible because new cars are connected cars.

Data is transmitted as well as received – typically without the owner's conscious knowledge. He may have signed a User Agreement at the time of purchase – along with all of the other paperwork associated with the purchase of a new vehicle. But the details and implications may not have been fully explained – or got lost in the fine print.