Car manufacturers tracking our driving info?
Most new vehicles are fitted with tracking devices. These devices have the potential to wirelessly send all of your driving info to the car manufacturer.
In Europe, thousands of cars are already tracking their owners’ driving info and by 2018 , every new vehicle sold will be doing the same. This information could then be used to alert advertisers and other industries to an individual’s habits, tastes and locations.
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has launched a campaign urging for greater safeguards against the use of driving info tracked by various car manufacturers. This will only become more of an issue as it’s estimated that by 2018, these tracking devices will become compulsory on all new vehicles.
A survey of 12 000 people across 12 countries, found that 90% of them wanted to own their own driving info.
Andrea Campbell, a spokeswoman for the FIA, said the, “My Car, My Data” campaign brought to light the fact that driving info gathered from cars is not protected by European data legislation.
“From 2018, every new car will have a wireless box for road safety, and there is talk of retrofitting telematics boxes into older cars,” she said.
“It’s only a small step to offering infotainment, traffic information and rest stop promotions. Manufacturers can track you, and lock you in to their terms and conditions. So we are pushing for dedicated privacy legislation for consumer data protection, greater awareness, and a fair aftermarket for services.”
Vehicles fitted with these tracking devices gather driving info on your style of driving, duration of journeys, speeds and acceleration. As well as the details of where you park, refuel and any destinations that you enter into the vehicle’s GPS system.
Some of these smart systems can even identify driving violations and when you use your smart phone. They can also record the number of passengers and send out driving info about your vehicle’s engine to emergency services, if needed.
The German MEP Evelyne Gebhardt said,
“Consumers have a right to know what data they are sharing when they drive their car. Currently, only vehicle manufacturers have access to this data. Europeans deserve to control their data. They also must have the possibility to shut off communication.”
Davi Ottenheimer, a data security expert, said car firms may use driving info in the same way that Google and Facebook use the data they collect.
“I would describe a vehicle as 100 computers transmitting 25 gigabytes per hour: that is essential metadata that says where you are going to be and when,” he said. “Companies make money from giving you something free and turning your data into revenue, and of course that is a huge privacy issue. Now all of the metadata about your life can be collected by your vehicle.”
A spokesman for the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) in Brussels said it had just adopted five principles of data protection, in order to prevent the misuse of driving info.
“These include transparency, customer choice, ‘privacy by design’, data security and the proportionate use of data,” he said.
“Data protection is an issue that Europe’s automakers take very seriously.”
But he said cars would be covered by new privacy regulations and there was no need for particular laws to cover them.
Britain’s AA motoring organisation is to join the campaign. Its president, Edmund King, said:
“Connected cars offer drivers a vast array of exciting services and they can also help with breakdowns and crashes. But drivers may be unaware of just what information is collected, how it is used, who owns it and how is it protected. We support the FIA’s campaign aimed at ensuring greater transparency.”
Source: IOL