Car privacy is under more scrutiny. It is one of those underlying factors that has largely slipped under the radar for a number of valid reasons. We raised this topic right here a while back after a series of meetings with automotive company execs. All of whom were all very open about their positions on this topic. That being, the priority is vehicle performance first. Public and driver safety always comes as a priority and we tend to agree. Its quite simple to see that if you cant assure safety, then we don’t have automated cars at all.
What is the detail
Think of a use case like this one –
- You order a driverless car pick up to take you to the airport at 5am.
- You then, whilst on route, verbally request the same car goes back home to pick up your children for school drop off.
- On route you have a business meeting on phone speaker.
- Your children have open conversations on the way to school and all friends.
- Same car picks up your wife at lunch to take her to a family event and she verbally orders a pick up home.
- She verbally request same car to make dinner reservations.
- Same car picks you up from airport at 6pm and you have 2 more phone meetings on way home.
I think you can now see the level of personal information now exchanged and on ‘record’ from just one day with one family. There is a reason why car privacy is under more scrutiny. In this scenario alone there is home address details, whole family movements and timings. The car has listened to all conversations, including those of children. Trends now being built with preferences, possible political views. Three business meetings and handled payment details multiple times.
To read my previous article about cars are a data privacy fail, but be patient and I still believe the ‘be patient part’. Cars are a Data Privacy Fail (to date, but be patient)
For another perspective, I personally like this article recently published online by wired.com as it hits similar notes. But I particularly enjoyed the angle around police investigations now utilising this data and it kind of makes sense. I mean if you had access, why not?- https://www.wired.com/story/police-records-car-subscription-features-surveillance/
I started DataBench in 2018 to specifically help businesses and consumers address their personal data privacy compliance and governance challenges. We have a customer-first approach to data privacy, and we have developed various solutions that will solve some scenarios today, and into the future.
We’ll continue to look at these topics and anytime you feel the need to learn more, you can reach out to us here at https://www.databench.com.au
