SoylentNews

Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/ [arstechnica.com]

Today, the Mozilla Foundation published its analysis of how well automakers handle the privacy of data collected by their connected cars, and the results will be unlikely to surprise any regular reader of Ars Technica. The researchers were horrified by their findings [mozilla.org], stating that "cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy."
[...]
For example, Nissan's privacy policy says it can collect "sensitive personal information, including driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information," although it's unlikely your car knows whether you're getting busy in the back seat. While this might be technically possible with a car fitted with a camera-based driver-monitoring system, Nissan's privacy policy notes the data source for the quoted paragraph as "direct contact with users and Nissan employees."

(Although more sophisticated driver-monitoring systems that claim to detect emotional states have been demonstrated at shows like CES [arstechnica.com], we're unaware of any that are in production.)

Mozilla found plenty more to worry about. Eighty-four percent of the brands they analyzed said they can share your data, and 76 percent said they can sell it. And more than half say they'll share data with the government and law enforcement by request.

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