Manufacturers’ surveillance of customer privacy
“It’s real.” Non-profit organization exposes
In recent years, the types of information that car manufacturers collect have diversified. The basics have long been driving speed, vehicle destination, and other operational details. Now, it’s beyond imagination. Things that were thought impossible are happening.
Rumors began to circulate that they collect everything from the music you listen to in the car (taste) to personal medical and genetic information, political views, and even information related to sexual activity. Eventually, it surfaced through the exposure of a non-profit organization.
Among the manufacturers exposed, Kia is noteworthy. What and how much did they collect?
All red lights for privacy protection evaluation
Your information is a public good
This issue came to light when the American non-profit organization ‘Mozilla Foundation’ surveyed 25 global car companies.
The Mozilla Foundation is famous for creating the Firefox internet browser. Meanwhile, they are also known for their interest in online data disclosure and privacy protection. For this reason, the Mozilla Foundation is known to investigate various things related to car manufacturers.
According to the privacy protection status survey conducted by the Mozilla Foundation, all 25 brands listed received the ‘Privacy Not Included’ rating.
The foundation criticized, “All the brands surveyed fall into the worst category among those we officially evaluated for privacy protection level.”
Collecting owners’ sexual activities
Is this pornography filming?
According to Mozilla, the information collection items of the manufacturers are as follows:
- Driving speed
- Driving location
- Songs listened to in the car
- Health information
- Genetic information
- Sexual activity
- Sexual behavior
It turned out that they collected all of this. There were even claims that Kia and Nissan collect information related to sex, which would seem meaningless to collect.
Meanwhile, out of the 25 brands, 6 were revealed to have collected potentially fatal information, such as the driver’s medical and genetic information, in case of misuse.
In particular, it was reported that Kia can process ‘information of special categories including race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, political views, union membership, etc.’
If this exposure is accurate, it is clear that it will become the worst issue ever, even considering the survival of the brand.
After Mozilla’s announcement, Kia’s U.S. corporation quickly clarified. According to Kia,
“We do not collect sexual activity or sexual orientation information from consumers and have never collected it.” They are sticking to this position. Also, “The category included in our privacy policy is just an example of the type of sensitive information defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).”
In other words, they are just parroting the provisions specified by the state law.
Secretly collected information,
manufacturers are turning it into money
According to the Mozilla Foundation survey, 84% of the listed manufacturers claim they “can share personal information collected from vehicle owners with service providers or information brokers.” Also, 76% said they “can sell the collected personal information.”
Despite these issues, most manufacturers do not give owners the right to control the information they can collect directly. Renault and Dacia reportedly inform drivers that they can delete their data.
By. Kwon Yong-min (capress@capress.kr)
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