Submitted via IRC for FatPhil
Mercedes has sparked a privacy row by admitting it spies on drivers with tracking devices covertly installed in its cars. The secret sensors, fitted to all new and used motors sold by the firm's dealers, pinpoint the vehicle's exact location.
The firm sold more than 170,000 new cars in Britain alone last year. Mercedes will not say how long it has used the sensors. And it insists they are only activated in "extreme circumstances" — when finance customers have defaulted on their payments.
But it admits sharing car owner information and vehicle location details with third-party bailiffs and recovery firms who repossess the cars.
Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/9756250/mercedes-spies-drivers-tracking-devices/
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196
British publication The Sun, a sometimes terrible and occasionally entertaining tabloid across the pond, is reporting that concerns are boiling among human rights groups, former government ministers, and some legal experts about Mercedes-Benz using vehicle location data to track down customers who default on their finance program payments.
Source: https://jalopnik.com/brits-are-pissed-about-mercedes-benz-tracking-down-cust-1837449509
See also:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @09:47PM (3 children)
GPS tracking in your car can be useful in a number of scenarios and in this particular case the capability was disclosed in the sales paperwork. Further, society as a whole has not pushed back against tracking so I don't understand why there would be an uproar over this type versus mobile phone tracking, credit systems, grocery store club cards, plate readers on every traffic light, internet tracking, NSA metadata collection...just to name a few.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 23 2019, @10:55PM
You can turn off your phone, leave it at home, or (supposedly) disable tracking.
Cars however, are very 'black box' about some of this. Where's the off switch?
Note that people aren't OK with tracking. There are constant stories about it, about companies agreeing to disable it, but in many cases you're getting free services in exchange for tracking. Or actively agreeing to it.
Anyhow.. if it was on the contract, at least that's open and forward.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 24 2019, @11:03AM (1 child)
Which society, pray tell?
Because GDPR is pretty definitively "society pushing back against tracking".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 24 2019, @04:32PM
Not enough, though. Somehow they still find it okay to mandate tracking devices in cars, but I guess it's fine when the government does it. Many of those countries' governments also violate privacy in other ways.
There needs to be a fierce pushback against tracking and a complete ban on mass surveillance, but no country has done so yet.