If you own a late-model GM car or truck, you’ve no doubt seen it: the OnStar button either on the dashboard or rearview mirror. GM aggressively markets this feature as a safety and convenience feature. You’re locked out of your car, call OnStar. You want reservations to your favorite restaurant, call OnStar. You’re in an accident, and need to contact police or ambulance, OnStar will automatically trigger in the event of an airbag deployment, and check and see if everything’s OK. All noble and noteworthy safety and convenience features.

However, a fellow automotive journalist friend of mine shared a different take on OnStar. He works for a magazine that routinely tests cars in high-performance settings such as autocross and road racing (on a designated track). While testing a new Saturn Sky (ostensibly a high-performance vehicle) an OnStar representative called him twice during the course of the day while he was driving the car aggressively. While taking corners fast, (and possibly getting the rear of the vehicle slightly loose), the airbags did not deploy nor did he ever lose control of the vehicle. He may have clipped one or two orange cones on the course but no major damage was caused.

Now think about it. The car must be equipped with an on-board accelerometer that is either constantly or occasionally sending a signal to a central processing center, proving that OnStar can determine or track if you’re operating the vehicle beyond the accepted realm of “normal” driving. What else can they keep track of? Speed? Vehicle location? If they can remotely unlock your doors from a satellite dish, there has to be some sort of positioning system. I suppose the guts and inner workings of OnStar are no more nefarious or intrusive than that of a conventional satellite navigation system. But how many vehicles alert you with a “Danger, Will Robinson!” distress call whenever you put the pedal to the metal?

You’ve got to know that many Corvette Z06 owners have or will take their cars to a race track at some point. Is OnStar constantly calling them when they’re on the track? Who determines how sensitive these systems are and what data they collect and transmit? It’s understandable on a minivan or SUV to have the parameters set conservatively in the event of a rollover or impending rollover. But you know people are going to drive full-on race cars aggressively. You may laugh at the prospect of OnStar sharing or passing on this information to law enforcement, but logistically, it’s not much of a stretch of the imagination. I just hope our constitution proves robust enough to protect Big Brother from snooping too much into our driving habits.