Business

Your car might be spying on you — and it’s costing you money

Along with social media companies spying on you, now you have to worry about your car. Automakers are collecting driving data from customers and quietly providing it to insurance companies, prompting another round of concerns about privacy and the auto industry.

Several manufacturers, including General Motors, Honda, Kia, and Hyundai, allow drivers with internet-connected vehicles to turn on features that monitor their driving, resulting in their coverage increased or even terminated in some instances, a new report from the NYT says.

What’s happening?

The New York Times reported that car manufacturers like General Motors and Ford are tracking drivers' behavior through internet-connected vehicles, and sharing it with data brokers such as LexisNexis and Verisk, which create "consumer disclosure reports" on drivers that insurance companies can access and analyse.

The carmakers claim drivers have given them permission to collect data, but the NYT notes not many read the fine print, where the “agreement” is listed, and are often hundreds of pages long. Though, even when drivers knowingly consent to data collection, they don’t always realize their data is being shared with a third party.

• The NYT reported the data (which includes instances of speeding, hard braking, and sudden accelerations) gets transferred to data brokers, like LexisNexis, who then sell that information to insurance providers.

• Some drivers found their insurance rates doubled due to their LexisNexis report.

“Stealthy data sharing” doesn’t even necessarily improve safety levels, a legal expert told the NYT, since car owners don’t realize their driving behavior could determine insurance premiums.

The government worried too: A 2023 report by the Mozilla Foundation found that cars were by far the worst product for privacy… and since then it’s had policymakers stirred up. The CPPP (California Privacy Protection Agency) is investigating privacy practices for internet-connected cars, and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey urged the FTC to look into manufacturers’ data practices last month.

The newest breakout business… is sleep tourism?

Everyone wants a good night’s sleep, but it feels like none of us get it. Is sleep tourism the solution? One third of adults don’t get enough sleep, and 50-70 million Americans have chronic sleep disorders. It’s propagating an increasingly popular sleep tourism industry, which is expected to grow by around 8% (which is more than $400 billion) in the next four years.

Where exactly does one go to enjoy “sleep tourism”?

Currently, the hospitality industry is going all in on it, embracing sleep as the main attractor to its locations instead of other amenities, according to the NYT.

• The Carillon Miami Wellness Resort has a Bryte bed (an over $6 thousand AI-assisted mattress that connects to your phone) in each of its 150 rooms.

• The Beatrice in Rhode Island offers a Sleep Wellness package (starting at $419 a night) that includes Therabody SmartGoggles, mocktails, and herbal teas.

• The Park Hyatt New York has five sleep suites with Bryte beds, starting at over $1,000 a night.

Hotels investing in customers sleep isn’t revolutionary: The Westin introduced the Heavenly Bed over 20 years ago, plus, blackout curtains and white noise machines are often found in hotel rooms. While hotels catering to your sleep isn’t anything new, it’s becoming a much bigger industry.

Sleep-oriented experiences

While most hotels offer a few fancy devices or AI-powered beds, the modern sleep tourism industry completely revolves around your sleep, offering a new way to travel.

• The Carillon has a five-treatment spa circuit (whatever that is) which emphasizes good sleep and a $2,600 Sleep Well retreat.

• Canyon Ranch offers a week-long “Mastering Sleep Retreat” with doctors, dieticians, and spiritual providers; starting at $8,800 for this year.

• Cocooning is a new type of get away that allows tourists escape into dark rooms void of screens or distractions. London’s Beaumont hotel offers ROOM, a $1,780-per-night suite that promises total relaxation.

Some hotel chains are even hiring sleep experts to help guests get their good night’s sleep.

• The Mandarin Oriental is partnering with hypnotherapist and sleep concierge Malminder Gill.

• Hyatt introduced a Sleep at Hyatt program in Australia and New Zealand with its sleep ambassador Nancy H. Rothstein.

However, the trend toward sleep tourism isn’t super surprising given the recent data… almost everyone (now more than ever) is looking for R&R and a good snooze.

Real Estate

Realtors have to say goodbye to their commission

Because of this change, we might finally be able to see some lower prices in the housing market. Last Friday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed to pay $418 million over the next four years to settle multiple lawsuits alleging it artificially inflated realtor commissions. Included in the deal is a policy change that will likely erase agents’ 5%–6% commissions.

How did it used to be?

For years and years, trying to sell your house it meant agreeing to pay that fee (which is the highest in the world, most countries have around 1% to 3%) if you wanted your home on almost any listing service. The commission fee was split between your agent and the buyer’s agent, as a bonus for selling a property.

The lawsuits argued that the NAR and brokerages kept buyers and sellers out of the commission negotiation process, leading to higher overall housing costs. Under the settlement, the NAR would no longer require that brokers advertising homes for sale compensate the buyer’s agent, likely forcing agents to lower fees to stay competitive, a change that’s ultimately likely to lower home costs.

What happens now?

If a federal court ends up approving the deal, the NAR should be able to lift some legal weight off its shoulders, like a $1.8 billion jury verdict from a case in Missouri and other similar cases that could edge it toward bankruptcy, an outcome the deal should potentially prevent.

The head of the NAR told media outlets the settlement “benefits our members and American consumers.” But the settlement also shines a light on the associations loosened grip on the real estate industry.

• Getting rid of the commission-based structure will likely lead to a 30% drop in the $100 billion Americans pay every year in commission fees, according to investment banking firm KBW.

• It also allows home-buying startups that couldn’t operate under previous regulations to compete in the market.

• Some real estate agents will see a sharp cut in their paychecks while others, at least a million, will leave the industry, according to KBW.

Going forward: Real estate experts are expecting a huge boost in the housing market now due to the settlement, as it represents a significant change for what it costs to buy and sell homes in the US.

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Grab Bag

Your cars are spying on you, but now vending machines?

Okay… I can get the cars. But vending machines? Really? The University of Waterloo in Canada removed 29 vending machines from campus after students found the unassuming snack machines had been secretly monitoring them through small cameras. What a time to be alive.

How did the students find out?

A Waterloo student took a picture of a rather interesting error message on the screen of an M&M-branded vending machine and took it to Reddit, saying, “hey so why do the stupid m&m machines have facial recognition?”

The company responded: A spokesperson for Invenda (the company that makes the vending machines for Mars, the owner of M&M) said the reason behind having the cameras was for “people detection and facial analysis, not face recognition,” according to Ars Technica, which makes it so much better.

Invenda claims it only uses this technology to trigger the menu screen when it sees a customer in front of the machine and that visual data is not stored or shared.

However…

…mathNEWS, a Waterloo student publication, found that Invenda sales brochures advertise the ability to gather demographic data, including gender and age (what a surprise!). Students said they had no clue they were being watched, which poses a bit of a problem for the company, since taking face image data typically requires explicit consent from the customer.

But why the need for a camera? Other than selling data, Invenda sells “anonymized data analyses” (as reported by the student newspaper), which means retailers could be using the information collected by the machines to stock them with the best selling snacks.

Prepare your toilets — there’s a plumber shortage

Wheres a plunger professional when we need them? America has a plumber shortage… and that means a lot more than just increased wait times for a working toilet, Bloomberg reported.

Plumbers are essential to the economy

$33 billion was ripped from the economy in 2022 due to the lack of licensed tradespeople who install and fix bathroom fixtures and drain piping systems, according to an analysis sponsored by bathroom-fittings maker Lixil.

The report says the US will be short 550,000 plumbers by 2027, which isn’t good news for anyone… except plumbers looking for a job:

• Plumber shortages can drive up costs for families and weaken businesses’ ability to expand to new locations.

• Plumbers play an increasingly vital role in infrastructure, and an increase in government spending towards the area means it’ll only become more prominent.

• They can also slow flood recovery efforts and building upgrades to make water systems more efficient.

So, where did the plumbers go? Quite a few of them are retiring, and employers are finding it difficult to bring in a new generation of trained professionals, given the reputation of plumbing being a well-paid but strenuous job, according to Bloomberg.

But it’s not just plumbers: The US is also in a shortage of other technical tradespeople, like electricians and carpenters. Enrollment at trade schools has decreased as younger generations are tending to steer toward a white-collar career path with a four-year college degree.

Fast Facts

Baaaaad Breeding: A Montana man pleaded guilty to wildlife crimes after he created a giant hybrid sheep by cloning DNA from illegally imported sheep parts.

Sequoia Stealer: A first-ever study into Britain’s redwood population showed that the country has more than six times the sequoia trees than California. The trees were brought over from their native California by 19th-century Victorians, who viewed the giant trees as a status symbol.

Shrek Season: Shrek 2 and Sony’s Spider-Man movies will be re-released in theaters this spring and summer.

Drug Disperser: Meta is being investigated by the FDA and prosecutors in Virginia for possible involvement with the sale of illicit drugs on the company’s social media platforms.

Patty Putt: There are more golf courses than McDonald’s locations in the US.