Modern automotive technology enables some very special and convenient features. They're essentially four-wheeled smartphone extensions. As fantastic as it is to start a vehicle with a phone app or to have it self-park, there is a downside.
The Mozilla Foundation claimed in its latest report 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.
None of the 25 automakers examined for the report satisfied the nonprofit organisation's minimal privacy standards, including Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, and Tesla, which was also identified to be accumulating more personal information from customers than necessary.
Data collected spans from personal information, such as medical information, to information about how drivers use the vehicle itself, such as how fast they drive, where they go, 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 published a breakdown of how automakers acquire and share user data. This can include basic information such as the user's name, address, phone number, and email address, as well as more sensitive information such as images, calendar entries, and even specifics like the driver's race, genetic makeup, and immigration status.
According to Mozilla, it was unable to establish if any of the automakers could meet the group's baseline security requirements for data encryption and theft protection. Indeed, it claims that, when compared to automobiles, dating apps and even sex toys frequently offer more comprehensive 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."
