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Serious. Not kidding. Modern cars are a privacy nightmare that collect an amazing amount of personal data.
They also require owners to allow them to share or sell highly sensitive information including disability status, genetic information, facial templates and even sexual activity, according to the Mozilla Foundation’s analysis.
Not only do they sell the data they collect, but they also share and/or sell the inferences they make from the data that they collect.
92 percent of the care companies give drivers little or no control over their personal data. Except with European brands Renault and Dacia, who comply with GDPR.
Mozilla says this about Nissan:
“probably the most mind boggling creepy, scary, sad, messed up privacy policy we have ever read” because “They come right out and say they can collect and share your sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic information and other sensitive personal information for targeted marketing purposes.” Nissan also discloses that it will share and sell “Inferences drawn from any Personal Data collected to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” to others for targeted marketing purposes.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy348q/every-new-car-is-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-researchers-conclude
On top of this, the car companies don’t have great cybersecurity. For example, Volkswagen and Audi, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz have all recently suffered data leaks or breaches that affected millions of customers. Credit: Vice