These major car companies are accused of harvesting and exploiting customer data
www.abc.net.au
As experts push to strengthen Australia's privacy laws, many car makers are gathering data and potentially selling it to third parties.

Rafi Alam from CHOICE told The World Today: “When we looked at Toyota’s privacy policy, we found that these Connected Services features will collect data such as fuel levels, odometer readings, vehicle location and driving data, as well as personal information like phone numbers and email addresses.”

The program’s policy document says Toyota collects data for various purposes if drivers don’t opt out — including for safety, security, research, product development and data analysis — but the company may also share it with third parties such as finance and insurance companies, debt collection agencies and market research organisations.

In 2023, the Mozilla Foundation reviewed the privacy standards of 25 major car brands, including Toyota. All 25 received failing marks for consumer privacy.

The report found brands such as BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, Kia, and Subaru could “collect deeply personal data such as sexual activity, immigration status, race, facial expressions, weight, health and genetic information, and where you drive”, which they could potentially sell to third parties.

Nissan was accused of being “the very worst offender”, while Toyota was found to have “a near-incomprehensible galaxy of 12 privacy policy documents”.

Can you trust them with everything about what you do in the car, what you say in the car, who’s in the car, where it goes, your connections to every other online data service?

  • @abhibeckertEnglish
    3•4 months ago

    Android Auto/Car Play don’t require giving the car access to anything. It should just be a simple video signal output, touch screen coordinates, and audio output/input line.

    And I’m pretty sure that is how it works, unless cars are applying screen reader/etc technology (TVs do that, so I wouldn’t put it past car manufacturers…).

    I’m pretty sure this article is talking about bluetooth, not Android Auto / Car Play. The bluetooth car protocol sends a copy of your full address database to the car because it’s a low bandwidth protocol that minimises sending data back and forth while the user is interacting with the hardware. I would never pair my phone to a modern car with bluetooth.

    • @TheGrandNagusEnglish
      1•4 months ago

      Android Auto/Car Play don’t require giving the car access to anything. It should just be a simple video signal output, touch screen coordinates, and audio output/input line.

      It’s a bit more.

      The car can communicate to the infotainment whether headlights are on, so AA can set dark/light mode.

      The car also communicates whether it’s LHD or RHD, so that it can switch button placement on the screen.

      Idk what other data, if any, Apple/Google insist on having