Car manufacturers are failing the data privacy test.
Your data has been given away by car manufacturers. According to a new survey, most major vehicle manufacturers acknowledge selling your personal information — though they are ambiguous on the purchasers — and half claim they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.
The growth of sensors in autos, from telematics to fully digital control consoles, has transformed them into massive data-collection centers. However, drivers have little or no control over the personal data collected by their automobiles, according to the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation's newest "Privacy Not Included" poll released on Wednesday. Security requirements are also ambiguous, which is a major worry considering manufacturers' previous record of vulnerability to hackers.
“Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I’m really hoping that we can help remedy that because they are truly awful,” said Jen Caltrider, the study’s research lead. “Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations in them. Cars have cameras that face inward and outward.”
Cars were judged to be the least private of over a dozen product categories evaluated by Mozilla since 2017. None of the 25 automobile brands whose privacy notices were examined satisfied Mozilla's baseline privacy guidelines, which promote open-source, public-interest technologies and maintains the Firefox browser.
Nineteen automakers claim to be able to sell personal data, with half providing information with the government or law enforcement in response to a "request" rather than a court order. Only two automobile manufacturers, Renault and Dacia, allow drivers to remove their data. The automakers are evasive about who they sell the data to, however the researchers are confident it includes data brokers, marketers, and dealers.
Data is also being collected by partners with installed products and services, such as SiriusXM, Google Maps, and Onstar. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing the manufacturers of the majority of cars and light trucks sold in the United States, has called for a federal privacy law to prevent connected devices and smartphones from amassing data for tailored ad targeting and other marketing purposes, while also increasing the likelihood of massive data theft through cybersecurity breaches.
However, drivers have little or no control over the personal data collected by their automobiles, according to the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation's newest "Privacy Not Included" poll released on Wednesday. Security requirements are also ambiguous, which is a major worry considering manufacturers' previous record of vulnerability to hackers.