Mozilla released a report last week that examined the terms of service for 25 car companies and the types of data being collected. The report states, ‘they can collect information about how much money you make, your immigration status, race, genetic information, and sexual activity (it’s in there!).’ Concerningly, the report provides ‘Twenty two of the car brands (88% of the ones we looked at) mentioned creating inferences — assumptions about you based on other data. And nine of those companies (39%) said specifically that they might sell them to third parties.’
Included in the report is an extract from Tesla’s Terms of Service, “if you no longer wish for us to collect vehicle data or any other data from your Tesla vehicle, please contact us to deactivate connectivity. Please note, certain advanced features such as over-the-air updates, remote services, and interactivity with mobile applications and in-car features such as location search, Internet radio, voice commands, and web browser functionality rely on such connectivity. If you choose to opt out of vehicle data collection (with the exception of in-car Data Sharing preferences), we will not be able to know or notify you of issues applicable to your vehicle in real time. This may result in your vehicle suffering from reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.” [emphasis added]
Read the full report here *privacy not included Mozilla Foundation
