Insurance Black Boxes Not Always Good

From the St. Louis Dispatch: More auto insurance companies are asking customers to ride around with a little electronic tattletale.
The device is the size of your palm. Plug it into your car and it will tattle to the insurer about how fast you drive, the time of day and the mileage. It will snitch if you peel out from stop signs or brake hard. Some versions measure how hard you turn.
The insurer will use all that to decide how much to charge you.
Easygoing drivers will get lower rates, especially if they don’t drive far. Lead foots won’t. Neither night workers nor people with long commutes will benefit.
The programs are voluntary, so expect good drivers to sign up for monitoring while bad drivers shun it. Consumer advocates worry that people who don’t volunteer may end up with higher rates by default as they are lumped in a pool of bad drivers. Some also criticize the programs for penalizing late-night driving, noting that night workers have no choice.
Allstate’s “Drive Wise” program is active in Illinois and will roll out in Missouri during the first half of this year. Progressive is actively pushing its “Snapshot” device on St. Louis TV. The devices communicate via cell towers.
State Farm, by far the largest auto insurer in St. Louis, offers a program in Illinois and will roll it out in Missouri this winter. Customers must have a car with General Motors’ Onstar system, Ford’s Sync or the competing In-Drive service to participate in the State Farm program.
Insurance companies say it’s an effort to price insurance by the riskiness of the driver, and that it encourages good driving.
“It does make you think,” says Stephanie Howell, spokeswoman for Allstate. “It rewards you for safe driving habits.”  http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/jim-gallagher/big-brother-can-lower-your-car-insurance-rate/article_fcfb585e-6aaa-568c-bbc9-e1b33a399758.html
I know if the insurance company said I would have to use the devise, I would refuse and seek another insurance company, but I fear this will be mandatory in the next few years, so we would have to make a choice, use the devise or drive illegally without insurance and getting our driving privileges revoked.