A subscription system and method of facilitating permission-based access to a subset of vehicle sensor data in a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU) to augment an information application. The system includes a vehicle subscription server. The method includes generating, by the vehicle subscription server, a sensor key and a subscription key, installing in a memory of the vehicle ECU the vehicle sensor key. In response to a request for a subscription by a mobile device, transmitting by the vehicle subscription server the subscription key. The vehicle ECU uses the subscription key to authenticate the mobile device as having a current subscription, and augments the information application with the subset of vehicle sensor data accessed based on the sensor subscription key.