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User Privacy
Car manufacturers Data Breach Data Privacy Smart Cars User Privacy

Here's How Smart Card Are Tracking Your Private Data

 

Smart cars are already the norm on our roads, thanks to increased connectivity and technological breakthroughs. However, beneath the slick exteriors and technological capabilities is a worrisome reality: your vehicle may be spying on you and documenting every step, including your private life. A recent study undertaken by the Mozilla Foundation revealed the alarming truth about how much personal data automakers collect and share.

The study analysed 25 different car brands and concluded that none of them passed consumer privacy criteria. Surprisingly, 84 percent of automakers have been found to review, share, or even sell data collected from car owners. The private data gathered significantly exceeds what is required for the vehicle's features or the car brand's relationship with its drivers. 

Six automakers go to alarming lengths to gather personal data about their drivers, including their driving habits, destinations, genetic makeup, and even their favourite music. This was discovered by Mozilla's research. Nissan even goes so far as to include "sexual activity" in the data it gathers, and in their privacy policy, Kia freely admits that it may collect data on your "sex life." 

According to Kia's privacy statement, it is allowed to handle "special categories" of data, which include private information on racial, religious, sexual, and political affiliations. The scope of data collecting goes beyond the in-car systems and includes linked services as well as external sources such as internet radio services and navigation apps. 

This massive amount of data isn't just dangling around; it's being utilised to develop profiles and draw conclusions about you, from your intelligence to your preferences. As the car industry embraces connectivity and autonomous driving, sales of services such as music and video streaming, driver assistance, and self-driving subscriptions are expected to increase. Carmakers can maximise profits by collecting more customer data through these services. 

Even Tesla, despite its dominance in the electric vehicle sector, failed Mozilla's security, data control, and AI tests. Tesla has previously been criticised for its privacy procedures, including cases in which staff exchanged recordings and photographs captured by customer car cameras. 

As the automotive sector evolves, concerns regarding data security and personal privacy grow. It remains to be seen if automakers will take the necessary safety measures to safeguard your personal information as the smart car revolution advances. In the meanwhile, it's critical to keep informed and cautious about the negative aspects of smart cars.
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User Security
Automakers Car manufacturers Data Breach Data Leak Privacy Breach User Security

Automakers can Exploit Your Private Data However They Want

 

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."
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Vehicle Privacy
Car Data Car manufacturers Modern Vehicles Navigation Privacy Privacy4Cars Vehicle Privacy

All You Need to Know About the ‘Vehicle Privacy Report’


You might already know that your car knows a lot about you, be it the recent location you have checked in to, your phone contacts, and with today’s modern designs, even your emails and texts. Cars could record your travel updates, or the number of presses on the accelerator or your seatbelt settings along with your biometric information.

While this might seem to be an innovative approach for a much easier ride, there exist some murky paths the data could be sold to, such as the Dark Web or other illicit marketplaces.

Vehicle Privacy Report

Privacy4Cars, a US-based automotive firm recently introduced a tool, Vehicle Privacy Report, that tells a car’s owner how much data is piled up in their cars. This is similar to the features in Apple and Google’s ‘privacy labels for apps’ that indicate how Facebook may use a user’s camera or location.

According to Privacy4Cars founder, Andrea Amico, people have a meager understanding in regards to the data their cars are capable of collecting and that the “level of detail and transparency varies” depending on the manufacturer. On the basis of this, the aforementioned tool has ranked most of modern automobiles as “smartphones on wheels,” since they could hoard large amounts of data and wirelessly permeate the information to manufacturers.

The Vehicle Privacy Report assigns privacy labels that fall into two categories: what a manufacturer collects (such as identifiers, biometrics, location, data from synced phones, and user profiles) and to whom a manufacturer sells or shares data (affiliates, service providers, insurance companies, governments, and data brokers). Most forms of data are probably gathered for the vast majority of automobiles and trucks that have been issued in the last few years.

The tool operates using a vehicle’s Identification Number (VIN) to assess each car’s manufacturer’s public policy document.

The documents may include corresponding car policies, privacy statements, and terms of service. Due to the fact that they are subject to the same regulations as other vehicles in the brand's portfolio, recent models from a manufacturer often acquire the same data. In general, when a legal request is made, all manufacturers will give information to the government or law enforcement.

These lengthy documents are frequently technical legal paperwork, which might be complex and contain nuances. They also describe the purposes for data collection, such as product development and market research, or personalization of advertising. For instance, in order for mapping and satellite navigation services to function, one must enter their location information. Additionally, not all information that is claimed to be collected may be gathered automatically; for example, the driver may need to turn on specific settings. In some circumstances, it may also be able to choose not to have information collected.

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