Modern Cars Are Privacy Nightmare

Forget snooping smartphones and spying smartwatches. Modern, connected cars are ‘the official worst category of products for privacy that we have ever reviewed,’ Mozilla concluded after studying two dozen brands.

Mozilla, the not-for-profit behind the open-source Firefox browser, revealed yesterday (Sep. 6) that ‘every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.’ And 84% of the cars sold or shared the personal data they collected, Mozilla said.

None of the 25 hackable computers-on-wheels evaluated met Mozilla’s Minimum Security Standards, because the nonprofit couldn’t determine if any of them displayed a basic security facet: encrypting all the personal information that sits in the car’s system.