Mozilla Foundation Condemns Data Collection By Cars

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When we hear “Mozilla,” we think of the search engine that is an alternative to Google. But the Mozilla Foundation is much more than that. On its homepage, it says:

“We collaborate with artists who help us see differently. We fund researchers who unlock new possibilities. We equip educators who turn questions into collective learning. We believe the best way to shape the future is to open it up — so more people can take part, create boldly, and learn together. This is where vision becomes practice, and curiosity becomes action. A better digital world doesn’t just appear. We co-create it.”

Cars & Privacy

In September of 2023, Mozilla claimed in an online post, “It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy.” That post said, “While we worried that our doorbells and watches that connect to the internet might be spying on us, car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines … with an unmatched power to watch, listen, and collect information about what you do and where you go in your car.

“All 25 car brands we researched earned our ‘Privacy Not Included’ warning label — making cars the official worst category of products for privacy that we have ever reviewed,” the Mozilla report said. It added that the car companies collect too much personal data.

“We reviewed 25 car brands in our research and we handed out 25 ‘dings’ for how those companies collect and use data and personal information. Every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.

“Car companies have so many more data-collecting opportunities … than even smart devices in our homes or the cell phones we take wherever we go. They can collect personal information from how you interact with your car, the connected services you use in your car, the car’s app which provides a gateway to information on your phone, and can gather even more information about you from third party sources like Sirius XM or Google Maps.

“The car companies … can collect super intimate information about you — from your medical information, your genetic information, to your ‘sex life,’ to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car. They then use it to invent more data about you through ‘inferences’ about things like your intelligence, abilities, and interests.”

You Are Fair Game If You Ride In A Connected Car

Jen Caltrider, a privacy analyst who led Mozilla’s research, told Germain: “They’re taking all the information they collect on you, which is a lot, and using it to make inferences about who you are, how intelligent you are, what your psychological profile is, what your political beliefs are. That’s the stuff people don’t necessarily think about.”

Should we be worried? Consider this: Earlier this month, GM paid $12.75 million in civil penalties for selling driving data collected by OnStar on hundreds of thousands of California motorists to data brokers, allegedly without their consent, Cal Matters reported. California’s attorney general alleged that GM earned $20 million from selling data to LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk Analytics between 2020 and 2024.

In a report on May 13, BBC correspondent Thomas Germain wrote, “Modern cars are computers on wheels, and giant corporations are using them to suck up intimate details about your life and make more money. If you think driving today is a chance for solitude and independence, think again. And it looks like it’s about to get a lot worse.”

Read The Fine Print

Car companies reveal much of what they are doing if you comb through the fine print in their privacy policies, but few bother to do so, Germain said. They harvest information on your precise location wherever you go, they record who is in the car with you, and what music is playing on the radio. The systems know whether you buckle your seat belt, drive too fast, or brake too hard. Some gather details you might not expect, such as your weight, age, race, and facial expressions. Most come with internet connections that can transmit the data collected in real time as you drive in blissful ignorance.

There are basically no rules about who can buy this data or what it’s used for. It can be used to market things to you. Companies who buy the data could use it in hiring decisions. Law enforcement can buy car data when they can’t get a search warrant. “Once it leaves your dashboard, you have no control over where it ends up,” Caltrider said. Could a rogue government use it to track you to political events or to determine whether you are in the country illegally? Hmmmm.

Among the biggest customers for car data are insurance companies, and they are using it to charge some people higher prices. But there’s no telling where your information is going, Germain wrote. “Some car companies admit they sell your data, but they don’t have to say who’s buying it. Most consumers have no idea it is even happening, according to privacy experts.”

Germain pointed out that Kia’s privacy policy suggests the company may collect details about your “sex life” and general health. Kia spokesperson James Bell told Germain the company has never actually collected data on drivers’ sex lives or health. He said those details only appear in Kia’s privacy policy because the company wants to be in full compliance with California’s definition of “sensitive data.” He assured Germain that the company’s privacy practices are transparent and that Kia only shares data with insurance companies if drivers opt in. The company did not explain what kinds of “sensitive data” it does collect, however.

“People would be shocked at the number of data points that their car collects and transmits to other people, either the manufacturer or third-party applications,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. “It basically means your life can be recreated almost on a second-by-second basis.”

But Wait, There’s More

Germain claimed that things in the US are about to get worse. A new federal law will require companies that sell cars in the US to install infrared bio-metric cameras and other systems to scan your body language, track your eyes, or track other aspects of your behavior to detect whether you are too drunk or too tired to drive. There are no rules limiting what the car companies can do with that information. The problem, Caltrider said, is the new law includes zero provisions that address what happens to the data these systems create.

In the US, there is no national privacy law and state laws do not go far enough. In Europe and the UK, there are special protections for certain sensitive categories of information and consumers have some rights that let them access their data and tell companies to delete it. But it’s not a solved problem in Europe. “Europeans are still beholden to privacy policies,” Caltrider said. “And you have to count on the regulations to be followed and enforced, and that’s something that’s not always happening — with cars especially.”

Most CleanTechnica readers are in favor of over-the-air updates because they eliminate most of the hassle of going to a dealer to get things fixed. But many of us may not fully appreciate that connectivity is a two-way street and would be surprised to learn how much information about us our cars are sharing with others. We also underestimate how AI can make the problem worse because it can slice and dice reams of data in fractions of a second.

My 2004 Mazda Miata never tattled on me when I went blasting down a curvy county road with the engine zinging off the rev limiter. Gosh, how I loved that car! Joni Mitchell once sang, “Something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.” Let’s hear it for the brave new world of all-encompassing surveillance and connectivity. What a wonderful world it will be; what a glorious time to be free!