Accordingto the Mozilla Foundation, your car is a ‘privacy nightmare.’
It is constantly harvesting data from the car itself and any connected apps.
And as we shall see, it also shares and sells that data.
Personal data in your car.Busakorn Pongparnit / Getty images
The bad news is, there’s very little you’ve got the option to do about it.
Of the 25 manufacturers it studied, all committed privacy violations that the foundation considers unacceptable.
What kind of data are we talking about?
Data in the infotainment system.metamworks / Getty Images
(Mozilla’s worst manufacturer issurprise surpriseTesla.)
Not all of this data can come from the car itself, obviously.
To really round out their portfolios of privacy violations, cars pull data from apps you connect to them.
Many apps already have dodgy privacy practices, and those are the ones you should watch out for.
And so far, the law doesn’t really help.
Data privacy is one area where corporations are running circles around the federal government.
Melanie Musson, vehicle expert and car insurance writer atClearsurance, agrees.
Your phone data may be shared if you do."
Brooks also recommends checking sites likePrivacy4Carsto get more detailed advice.
metamworks / Getty Images
The Mozilla Foundation alsooffers advicefor preventing access to your data.
Much of this is the same general advice for all online services and apps.
Do not consent to anything, switch off any data-sharing options, and activate any privacy parameters.
You should also avoid connecting your phone to the car.
At the very least, it will exfiltrate your address book to enable essential phone functions.
If you do connect, use your phone’s own parameters to limit data transfer.
