These cars want to know about your sex life (re-air) (Lock and Code S05E25)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast…

Two weeks ago, the Lock and Code podcast shared three stories about home products that requested, collected, or exposed sensitive data online.

There were the air fryers that asked users to record audio through their smartphones. There was the smart ring maker that, even with privacy controls put into place, published data about users’ stress levels and heart rates. And there was the smart, AI-assisted vacuum that, through the failings of a group of contractors, allowed an image of a woman on a toilet to be shared on Facebook.

These cautionary tales involved “smart devices,” products like speakers, fridges, washers and dryers, and thermostats that can connect to the internet.

But there’s another smart device that many folks might forget about that can collect deeply personal information—their cars.

Today, the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz revisits a prior episode from 2023 about what types of data modern vehicles can collect, and what the car makers behind those vehicles could do with those streams of information.

In the episode, we spoke with researchers at Mozilla—working under the team name “Privacy Not Included”—who reviewed the privacy and data collection policies of many of today’s automakers.

To put it shortly, the researchers concluded that cars are a privacy nightmare. 

According to the team’s research, Nissan said it can collect “sexual activity” information about consumers. Kia said it can collect information about a consumer’s “sex life.” Subaru passengers allegedly consented to the collection of their data by simply being in the vehicle. Volkswagen said it collects data like a person’s age and gender and whether they’re using your seatbelt, and it could use that information for targeted marketing purposes. 

And those are just the highlights. Explained Zoë MacDonald, content creator for Privacy Not Included: 

“We were pretty surprised by the data points that the car companies say they can collect… including social security number, information about your religion, your marital status, genetic information, disability status… immigration status, race.”

In our full conversation from last year, we spoke with Privacy Not Included’s MacDonald and Jen Caltrider about the data that cars can collect, how that data can be shared, how it can be used, and whether consumers have any choice in the matter.

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

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