Mozilla study reveals that “modern cars are a privacy nightmare”

I was at a car engineering conference some years ago and everyone dismissed this problem as minor or not their problem, all they cared about was 5g/self driving, lighter/composite weldin materials/techniques and "cockpit amenities" where they harnessed all sorts of user data.

This reminds me of that story of tesla employees sharing videos of kids being run over, naked customers, or customers fucking in private chat groups:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/

I look forward to the class action and GDPR lawsuits.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

According to a report published by the Mozilla Foundation on Wednesday, cars are “the official worst category of products for privacy” that it’s ever reviewed.

All 25 of the car brands that were researched for the report — including Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, and Tesla — failed to meet the nonprofit organization’s minimum privacy standards and were found to collect more personal data from customers than necessary.

Mozilla says it also couldn’t confirm that any of the automakers could meet the organization’s minimum security standards regarding data encryption and protection against theft.

In fact, it claims dating apps and even sex toys typically provide more detailed security information about their products than cars.

“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,” says Mozilla in the report.

The report was so scathing that the organization said the advice it typically provides to help customers protect their personal data feels like “tiny drops in a massive bucket.” Instead, the Mozilla Foundation has started a petition urging car companies to stop the data collection programs they’re unfairly benefitting from, expressing that “our hope is that increasing awareness will encourage others to hold car companies accountable for their terrible privacy practices.”

The original article contains 584 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 62%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Who’d have thunk that a car that monitors its cabin even when it’s off is not actually considerate about privacy?

They tested only 25 makes, and all have failed. I say 'only' to remind everyone that just because your car's make isn't on the list does not mean it's good, it only means it wasn't tested.

I’ll stick to my old 2007 shitbox. Until I can block sending all data from a new vehicle to someone else’s servers I just can’t justify buying a new vehicle.

As a (former now?) car enthusiast, this shit is the quickest way to curb my enthusiasm about cars and make me a radical die-hard f*ck cars person. This is also why so many people hate EVs, they just hate this invasive tech and are misinformed. These companies need to be collectively fined HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars, AT LEAST.

I really really hope motorcycles haven't been infested by this plague yet.

Good to know. So things to inquire when buying a car will be:

• What happens when I decline the usage terms of the on board system?
• How do I disable or remove the SIM card?

I guess in either case the answer will likely mean I will keep driving my existing car until it dies.

AuToMoTiVE fReEDoM