Some US companies do this, too.

The unfortunate part is that, if we could trust that the data would be handled correctly (not wide-open to hackers, not used for other purposes like advertising/marketing) this would be an improvement in the efficiency of the insurance industry.

I assume everyone who uses mobile networks has their location data being stored, shared, and sold by the mobile network companies. I assume government agencies and other people in positions of power can easily get identifiable information, and advertisers or other businesses can purchase "anonymized" information. At this point, I'm not sure what else is left to protect.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/verizon-and-att-...

They claim they're stopping, but I don't see why I should believe them.

Because one industry does it, does that mean we just give up and let everyone do it?

Mobile network location data is much more coarse than GPS data, so there's "that" to protect.

Are you sure? If the data in question also covers WiFi signals, which include the signals emitted by every phone near you, then I'm not sure the data really is that coarse.

I'm presuming here the location data is gathered outside of the phone (eg. by cell towers), not the phone itself. If you have access to the phone itself (eg. malicious app), then you can easily get GPS data as well.

Did this but with an app in Germany. As I "scored" 95 out of 100 points and was apparently at the top 1% of the drivers, I got a pretty good discount on my insurance.

About 500€ per year less than without this app. So yeah, for that price they can track me anytime I drive, I don't have an issue with that.

> which has at the very least a GPS module

The accelerometer data is what they claim to be the most after. They're looking at intensity of acceleration/deceleration to determine if you're a defensive driver.

Worse: liberty mutual has a black box that uses your phone. Then you give up your driving/location data, your mobile data, your phone battery, and your OBD-2 port.