Privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system with a wild card mode

Abstract

A novel privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system and a related method of operation provide a dynamically-adjustable access grant or denial of privacy-sensitive vehicle information to a vehicle monitoring personnel based on a driver's response to an electronic request made by the vehicle monitoring personnel. In one embodiment, vehicle information is categorized into a mandatory disclosure dataset and a privacy-adjustable dataset, wherein the mandatory disclosure dataset is disclosed to the vehicle monitoring personnel at all times, while the privacy-adjustable dataset is accessible if the driver grants access via a driver's user interface on an onboard vehicle user interface, or on a mobile electronic device. Furthermore, a special wild card mode visible to the driver enables the vehicle monitoring personnel to access an entire set of vehicle information for a limited period per access and for a limited number of accesses per period, based on a pre-arranged consent with the driver.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention generally relates to vehicle monitoring and vehicle information management methods and systems. More specifically, various embodiments of the present invention relate to a privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system with a wild card mode.[0002]Vehicle monitoring systems for commercial vehicle drivers as well as passenger vehicle drivers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. For example, OnStar systems offer cellular signal and satellite signal-based vehicle monitoring and communications between an onboard transceiver device in a vehicle and a vehicle monitoring station. Emergency location tracking of the vehicle, emergency vehicle door unlocks, and subscription fee-based voice navigational guidance via the onboard transceiver device and the vehicle monitoring station are some of the conventional offerings from the OnStar systems and other vehicle-tracking service providers.[0003]Furthermore, parents, commercial vehicle ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system with a wild card mode. This system allows a vehicle monitoring personnel to access all of a vehicle's information dataset, including a mandatory disclosure dataset and a privacy-adjustable dataset, through a privacy control-adjustable onboard vehicle monitoring device. The system includes a computer server with a CPU and memory unit, a wireless transceiver unit, and a driver's user interface device. The vehicle information dataset can be transmitted to the computer server either automatically or upon a driver's request. The computer server can change the data access flag for a private data field to additional monitoring allowed or deny access to the private data field. The wild card mode allows the vehicle monitoring personnel to temporarily bypass driver-specific privacy settings to access all of the vehicle information dataset. The system provides a convenient and flexible way to control privacy in a vehicle monitoring system.

Problems solved by technology

However, some drivers find that the notion that a vehicle-monitoring entity keeps track of what can be considered private and sensitive information, such as the vehicle's speed, the vehicle's past and current locations categorized by time, and other privacy-sensitive information, is a serious violation of civil rights and privacy, as such privacy-sensitive information can be hacked, sold, stolen, or misused by governmental authorities, supervising entities, and even rogue entities.

While service providers (e.g. OnStar) and supervising entities (e.g. employers, parents, and etc.) for onboard vehicle monitoring devices often officially state that all of the sensitive information gathered in real-time by the service providers of onboard vehicle monitoring will remain private and protected, a gross misuse or a leak of privacy-sensitive data to a third party entity over the operational lifecycle of the vehicle is a serious civil rights risk to each driver.

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