This week’s SmartCar roundup scrutinizes the issue of privacy with regards to information obtained by connected cars.

AAA’s Consumer Rights for Car Data

As more connected cars are manufactured and sold each year, AAA reports that about 20 percent of cars released this year alone will collect and transmit data outside the vehicle to improve safety and convenience for drivers.  The question is, do car owners know what happens to their data?  Who gets them?  What are they doing with all these data?

AAA unveiled its Consumer Rights for Car Data at CES 2014, calling for transparency, choice and security.  AAA believes that car owners have the right to know what information is being collected from their vehicles and how it is being used; consumers have a right to decide who to share their data with and know the purpose why it’s being collected; and that consumers have a right to expect that connected-vehicle manufacturers and service providers will use reasonable measures to protect vehicle data systems and services against unauthorized access and misuse.

“Many connected car features are made possible through the collection of large amounts of potentially sensitive data from drivers,” said Bob Darbelnet, AAA CEO and president. “Companies collecting, using and sharing data from cars should do everything possible to protect consumer rights as they offer these exciting technologies.”

The heat is on

AAA’s proposal is being backed, not directly, by Senator Al Franken who is calling for the regulation of location data collected by car manufacturers.

Following a statement made by Jim Farley, Ford’s global chief of marketing, who told an audience at CES 2014 that it knows “everyone who breaks the law, we know when you are doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you are doing. By the way, we don’t supply that data to anyone,” the senator sent a letter to Ford inquiring its data collection methods and what it does with the data it collects.

Farley’s statement was indeed disturbing.  How much does a given car manufacturer know about you?

Though Ford CEO Alan Mulally was quick to dispute Farley’s claims stating that, “We do not track the vehicles. That’s absolutely wrong. And we’d only send data to get map data if they agree that that’s OK to do that, but we don’t do anything with the data, we don’t track it and we would never do that,” the question of privacy still remains.

Other questions raised by Franken are whether Ford shares gathered information with law enforcement agencies or other companies, how it obtains permissions from consumers to approve collection of data, and how long does it keep user data.

Stay in your lane

Franken’s inquiry is enough to keep other car manufacturers on their toes, but Chrysler isn’t affected by the situation.

“We have left this information in such large data status that it can not, in any way, shape or form allow us to formulate a view of a particular individual or particular class of people. So I feel relatively comfortable that what ever the controversy was surrounding one of our competitors is not repeatable in our environment,” Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said. “It’s a non issue, but we get the point.”

BMW has also issued a statement regarding privacy concerns with regards to car user information acquired and it stated that what they get from vehicles helps them in the early detection of faulty systems.  Simon Euringer, who lead’s BMW’s ConnectedDrive initiative, added that all models released this year will have a “clear all” button which would allow drivers to delete all previous information in their car’s infotainment system.

Mercedes-Benz is also for the protection of consumers’ data as it is already the company’s practice to inform consumers and get their consent for data collection as it is the law in Germany.  This is not the case in the US, which means US car manufacturers may have been collecting too much data without the users’ knowledge.

Privacy concerns with regards to connected cars is quite new despite growing concerns for keeping things private.  Numerous US retailers have come under fire for recommendations made to consumers made from previous purchases, a scenario that could potentially happen to car owners if their data is sold to other companies without their knowledge.

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