Is your car spying on you? Here's how vehicles gather your data
Zoë MacDonald has pored over the privacy policies and found how car companies are taking your info
When a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day, authorities were quickly able to gather information, crediting Elon Musk and Tesla for sending them info about the car and its driver.
But for some, it's alarming to discover that kind of information is so readily available.
"Most carmakers are selling drivers' personal information. That's something that we know based on their privacy policies," Zoë MacDonald, a writer and researcher focussing on online privacy and digital rights, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the Tesla CEO was able to provide key details about the truck's driver, who authorities believe died by self-inflicted gun wound at the scene, and its movement leading up to the destination.
With that data, they were able to determine that the explosives came from a device in the truck, not the vehicle itself.
"We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself," Musk wrote on X following the explosion.
To privacy experts, it's another example of how your personal information can be used in ways you may not be aware of. And while this kind of data can useful in an investigation, it's by no means the only way companies use the information.
"This is unfortunately not surprising that they have this data," said David Choffnes, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston.
"When you see it all together and know that a company has that information and continues at any point in time to hand it over to law enforcement, then you start to be a little uncomfortable, even if — in this case — it was a good thing for society."
CBC News reached out to Tesla for comment but did not hear back before publication.
What does it know?
MacDonald says the privacy concerns are a byproduct of all the technology new cars come with these days, including microphones, cameras, and sensors. The app that often accompanies a new car is collecting your information, too, she says.
The former writer for the Mozilla Foundation worked on a report in 2023 that examined vehicle privacy policies. For that study, MacDonald sifted through privacy policies from auto manufacturers. And she says the findings were staggering.
"More and more modern cars are connected to the Internet, much like, you know, our computers and cell phones. And they're also a very sophisticated piece of technology," said MacDonald.
"What that means for your personal privacy, I'm not sure that that conversation has really caught up for one reason or another."
Most shocking of all is the information the car can learn from you, MacDonald says. It's not just when you gas up or start your engine. Your vehicle can learn your sexual activity, disability status, and even your religious beliefs.
MacDonald says it's unclear how they car companies do this, because the information in the policies are so vague.
It can also collect biometric data, such as facial geometric features, iris scans, and fingerprints.
Cars are a privacy nightmare.- Zoë MacDonald, digital privacy researcher
"Every time you use one of those fancy features in your car, because it's connected to the internet, you create a tiny little record of what you just did," said MacDonald.
This extends far past the driver. MacDonald says she read one privacy policy that required drivers to read out a statement every time someone entered the vehicle, to make them aware of the data the car collects, something that seems unlikely to go down before your Uber ride.
And car companies aren't just keeping that information to themselves.
Confronted with these types of privacy concerns, many people simply say they have nothing to hide, Choffnes says. But when money is involved, they change their tune.
According to an investigation from the New York Times in March of 2024, General Motors shared information on how people drive their cars with data brokers that create risk profiles for the insurance industry, which resulted in people's insurance premiums going up. General Motors has since said it has stopped sharing those details.
"The issue with these kinds of services is that it's not clear that it is being done in a correct or fair way, and that those costs are actually unfair to consumers," said Choffnes.
For example, if you make a hard stop to avoid an accident because of something the car in front of you did, the vehicle could register it as poor driving.
The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. announced Thursday it has proposed a settlement preventing General Motors from selling consumers' geolocation and driver-behaviour data to consumer reporting agencies for the next five years.
Brian Kingston, President and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, says its member companies "share a strong focus on protecting their customers' privacy." Those members include Ford Motor Company of Canada, Ltd., General Motors of Canada Company and Stellantis.
"Each of our member companies comply with the comprehensive requirements of Canadian federal and provincial privacy laws, which provide for the safeguarding of consumer personal information," Kingston said in a statement emailed to CBC.
What can be done?
MacDonald says you can try to read your car's privacy policy, but good luck.
"They're not written for human consumption," said MacDonald. "They tend to be as nonspecific as they legally can be."
And she says, because of this, it's hard for people to know if they're signing away their privacy rights.
"I don't think that you can properly consent to something that you don't know is happening," said MacDonald.
There are a few things you can do if you're concerned about the data your car collects. You can avoid downloading the car's app, and simply not use the connected services. But MacDonald says even those measures are just small drops in the bucket that penalize the driver in some ways.
"They're entitled to use the features that they paid for. They should just be able to do that in a way that protects more of their privacy and their safety while they're in their car," said MacDonald.
But here's where it gets even trickier. MacDonald says there isn't a car company that treats your privacy much better than the others.
That means consumers can't advocate on this issue by taking their dollars elsewhere.
"Cars are a privacy nightmare. And that is not a problem that Canadian consumers can solve or should solve or should have the burden to try to solve for themselves," said MacDonald.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Interview with Zoë MacDonald produced by Laurie Allan. With files from The Associated Press.