Slate's modem-free pickup brings privacy back to driving

As a society, we have become tracked, categorized, exploited, and monetized. Tech companies have determined that our data, when sold to ad networks, is a profitable business. Automakers, eager to find additional streams of revenue, jumped aboard. Now, nearly every app, device, and vehicle harvests and shares valuable information. Most of it is (hopefully) anonymized, but not all of it.

Automotive startup Slate doesn't see data as a business plan. Yes, its app will collect information, but a Slate spokesperson, when asked if collected data will be sold for additional revenue, told SAE Media a flat “No.”