February 19, 2024

Car Privacy is Horrid

1 hour 4 minutes

Modern cars are chock full of sensors and connected to the internet via built-in cellular modems. That’s a recipe for massive data collection. Last September, Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included team released a blockbuster report how much data our cars were gathering and it was absolutely staggering. According to the hard-to-find privacy policies, your car can collect extremely personal information including precise location, contact lists from your phone, call and message data, and – believe it or not – even “sexual activity”. Today, I’ll walk through this report and its implications with the head of Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included project, Jen Caltrider.

Interview Notes

Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/

Mozilla’s car report: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

Mozilla’s report on AI chatbots: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/happy-valentines-day-romantic-ai-chatbots-dont-have-your-privacy-at-heart/

Donate to Mozilla Foundation: https://donate.mozilla.org/

Mozilla layoffs: https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/13/mozilla-downsizes-as-it-refocuses-on-firefox-and-ai-read-the-memo/

Sign the petition to stop car data gathering! https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/car-companies-stop-your-huge-data-collection-programs-en/

Bruce Schneier article in Slate: https://slate.com/technology/2023/12/ai-mass-spying-internet-surveillance.html

Further Info

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Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

0:02:39: What were some top finding from your car privacy report?

0:05:14: Which cars did you review and how did you evaluate them?

0:09:44: How was I notified and how did I consent to my car’s privacy policy?

0:10:39: What are cars tracking? Are electric cars any worse than gas cars?

0:13:55: What third party data mining is going on in my car?

0:20:41: Is there a way to opt out of data sharing?

0:24:10: Is less data collected in Europe?

0:26:02: Where is all my data stored? Locally, in the cloud, or both?

0:28:52: Is the data at least secured?

0:29:48: Can dealerships access my data? What about law enforcement?

0:32:28: What about rental or fleet cars? What about passengers?

0:37:24: Do car dealers disclose this data collection to shoppers?

0:39:11: What are some of the security problems with this data collection?

0:45:55: How did car makers and legislators respond to your report?

0:48:36: Do modern privacy laws cover auto data?

0:50:48: So what can we do about this today?

0:54:30: What will Privacy Not Included tackle next?

0:58:40: Wrap-up

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By Carey Parker

4.9

6464 ratings