[albertw]

When I purchased my 240, I refused to sign the Connected Services agreement. Then I was given a form to sign that stated I knew I was opting out of Connected Services and losing all the (negative to me) benefits of that program. So it is possible to avoid having Connected Services activated, and it should be possible to have it cancelled.

That said, it doesn't guarantee that BMW is not collecting the same data and just not providing you with the service. For example, the dealer knows what maintenance is due before I give them my key fob to sign in, and one letter I received said "your car told us ... is due".

I've been following the OnStar blowup because I ordered a Blackwing last year and it was built this week. Apparently in the US the main aggregator of data that is sold to insurance companies is something called LexisNexis. They will provide their records of all the incidents of excessive speed, hard braking and acceleration (but apparently not high g turns) when requested by the car owner.

My plan is to physically remove the OnStar module from the car when I receive it. That won't guarantee that the dealer won't download all the data when I bring the car in for service, but I hope that the driving data is stored on that module rather than elsewhere in the car. (I've seen several reports of people doing this with no drivability issues.) I have no idea whether this is possible in our BMWs, but I no longer care since I should have a new car with real steering feedback in a month or two.