A new report by the Mozilla Foundation has found that cars have the worst privacy practices of any product category the organization has ever reviewed. The report, which analyzed 25 car brands, found that 92% of automakers provide drivers with little to no control over their personal data, and 84% share user data with third parties.
The report also found that car companies collect a wide range of personal data, including; name, address, phone number, and email address. They also collect photos, calendar information, and driver’s license data, as well as driving habits, such as how fast drivers are and where they go.
Health information, such as medical conditions and medications, genetic information, racial and ethnic identity, and immigration status are also part of data collected.
Mozilla also found that car companies do not have strong security measures in place to protect user data. The report found that none of the automakers could meet Mozilla’s minimum security standards regarding data encryption and protection against theft.
The Mozilla Foundation has started a petition urging car companies to stop collecting and sharing so much personal data. “While we worried that our doorbells and watches that connect to the internet might be spying on us, car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines,” said Mozilla in the report.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheVerge.