It turns out that the answer to the question of which devices have the worst user privacy policies may be waiting for you outside. The Mozilla Foundation said in a report released on Wednesday that cars are "the official worst category of products for privacy" it has ever analysed.
The global nonprofit discovered that 84% of the reviewed automakers shared user data with third parties, giving users little (if any) control over their personal information.
The nonprofit organisation's minimum privacy criteria were not met by any of the 25 automakers analysed for the report, including Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, and Tesla, which was also discovered to be collecting more personal information from customers than necessary.
The data that is gathered ranges from personal information, such as medical information, to information about how drivers use the vehicle itself, including how fast they drive, where they travel, and even what music they are listening to.
Both Nissan and Kia are known to permit the gathering of data about a user's sexual life.
In comparison, Mozilla claims that 37% of mental health applications (which are also known for having bad data privacy practices) had superior practices for collecting and using private data.
According to the report, 84 percent of the evaluated car brands share users' personal information with service providers, data brokers, and perhaps dubious companies, with 76 percent claiming the right to sell such information. 56 percent of users are willing to provide information upon request to the government and/or law enforcement.
With flags in every privacy category, Tesla received the lowest overall brand score in the survey and did so just twice. Following a number of collisions and fatalities, Tesla's AI-powered autopilot was criticised as "untrustworthy."
In addition to the research, Mozilla also released a breakdown outlining how automakers collect and share user data. This can range from basic information like the user's name, address, phone number, and email address to more private information like images, calendar entries, and even specifics like the driver's race, genetic makeup, and immigration status.
Mozilla claims it was unable to confirm whether any of the automakers could adhere to the group's baseline security requirements for data encryption and theft protection. In fact, it claims that compared to autos, dating apps and even sex toys frequently offer more thorough security information about their products.
“While we worried that our doorbells and watches that connect to the internet might be spying on us, car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines,” stated Mozilla in the report.
Mozilla claims to have spent more than 600 hours—three times as long per product as it typically does—researching the privacy policies of car manufacturers. The organisation claimed that because of how critical the report was, the recommendations it generally gives to assist clients protect their personal data feel like "tiny drops in a massive bucket."
Instead, the Mozilla Foundation has launched a petition asking automakers to halt the data collecting initiatives from which they are unfairly profiting, saying that "our hope is that increasing awareness will encourage others to hold car companies accountable for their terrible privacy practises."
