If you think what goes on inside your car is your business, you’re not far from the truth. Indeed, according to Mozilla, through its multitude of sensors, microphones and cameras, your vehicle spies on your actions.
In his blog dedicated to privacy security, Mozilla doesn’t have words harsh enough to describe the data security policies users from automobile manufacturers. According to the foundation, if they are at best non-existent, they are most often very opaque.
Recent cars are increasingly connected and models equipped with the most modern technologies, such as Tesla and their Autopilot, or a state-of-the-art infotainment system, for example, can produce several gigabytes of information every day. What happens to this data once it arrives on the car manufacturers’ servers? Mozilla investigated, but the question remains unanswered.
Mozilla Says Cars Are the Worst Data Privacy Products
While consumers scrutinize the actions of manufacturers of watches, smartphones and other connected accessories, no one has really looked into the practices of the automotive industry. And yet, the latter “has quietly launched in data trading by transforming their vehicles into powerful data-gathering machines, […] machines that have unparalleled monitoring powerlistening and gathering information about what you are doing and where you are going in your car”.
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Of the 25 brands studied, strictly none meets Mozilla’s basic security criteria. Moreover :
- they collect way too much data
- 84% of they share or sell your data
- 92% of they give no control to customers on the use of said data
Some manufacturers such as Nissan and Hyundai even reserve the right to collect data about your antics in the car ! It should be noted that in this ranking, Renault is doing the least badly. If the diamond brand must respect the GDPR, other manufacturers are less scrupulous and sell their customers’ data.
