Big Brother watching may lower (or raise) your insurance rates

Would you let your auto insurance company put a monitoring device in your vehicle if it knocked 50 bucks off your semi-annual premium and could possibly lower your rates even further? What if there were a chance the device could raise your rates? 

Progressive Corp. is testing just such a device with a batch of willing customers right now. The gadget monitors data and every six months you use your computer to send the data to Progressive. The device measures speed, distance, time of day, start-and-stop driving, and other factors that can affect your insurance rates. This is all part of a plan to put customers into narrower risk categories instead of the broad age groupings currently used.