THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION FOUND THAT BUYING A NEW CAR OPENS UP A PRIVACY NIGHTMARE
I’ve never actually bought a new car, though I have enjoyed a number of new cars using the lease route, and actually bought my last one when the lease ran out. But leasing a car today (or, at least, leasing a Subaru) doesn’t seem to include the privacy nightmare that the Mozilla Foundation is warning about when you buy one. New cars, Mozilla says, represent “the worst category we have ever reviewed” in consumer goods. And considering that they review almost ALL consumer goods, their finding is quite the condemnation. And they’re talking about multiple car makers, too.
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BUYING A NEW CAR COULD MEAN THE CARMAKER OWNS THE RIGHT TO SELL YOUR VERY PRIVATE DATA
The problem is how computerized and connected many modern vehicles are these days. So buying a new car today almost inevitably means a computer is involved behind the dashboard. While more computing is a factor, how connected they are with their own modems is an even bigger one. Many of these new cars collect data about you pretty much all of the time, and then share it almost all the time as well. We’re variously talking about personal data, location data, and a variety of other and meta data as well. Did you know that buying a new car from GM automatically gives GM the right to collect your “genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics” and then to sell it to whoever they want to?
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PRIVACY NIGHTMARE INCLUDES ALL OF YOUR “SEXUAL ACTIVITY” TOO, AT LEAST WITH NISSAN
And then there’s Nissan, which says when you buy a new car it can collect data on your “sexual activity” as well as your “intelligence,” the latter of which they infer from your other personal data. And by personal I don’t mean sex. Nissan then says it has the right to share their data collection of you with “marketing and promotional partners.” Frankly, I’m rather shocked at these developments. Though maybe I better have a look at what my own car is able to share with the internet all on its own (though I’d love to see if it infers that I have a lot of dumb sex, to be sure).
Oh, and when it comes to Nissan, let’s not forget that they had a major data breach earlier this year, shall we? But when it comes to black hats wanting access to your data, we shouldn’t be surprised. It isn’t new. But buying a new car and losing even more privacy for the privilege?
