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They're collecting information about They said they can collect information about your sex life, your sexual activity, your union membership, your genetic information, and your biometrics, on top of all the car usage data of where you're driving, when you're driving, how fast you're driving, how many people are in the car, or radio stations you're listening to, and on and on and on. It was huge. It was really frightening.
Actually, is your car spying on you?
My name is James Lee and you're watching Beyond the Headlines on Breaking Points.
Many people think.
Of their car as a private space, somewhere to call their doctor, have a personal conversation, cry over a breakup, or hit the open road without the world knowing where
you're headed. But that perception no longer matches reality. According to Mozilla research, popular global brands including BMW for Toyota, Tesla, Kia, and subru can collect deeply personal data such as sexual activity, immigration status, race, facial expressions, weight, health and genetic information and where you drive with data collected by sensors, microphones, cameras, and phones and devices drivers connect to their cars, as
well as by car apps, company websites, dealerships and vehicle telematics. Where does all this information go, who has access to it? And for what purposes are they using it? Joining us today is gen cult Writer, program Director of Privacy not included, a Mozilla initiative and guide that helps consumers understand privacy and security features of various technology products and services.
Jen, thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me all right, I want.
To start with the report itself. The Mozilla report found that all twenty five major car brands reviewed received failing marks for consumer privacy. I was wondering what exactly it means to receive a failing mark. If you can go into that a little bit and share with us some of the maybe they're some of the most surprising, perhaps startling findings. You guys, came across.
Yeah, so all twenty five of the car brands we reviewed across fifteen car companies earned our privacy not included warning label. And what that means is we ding companies for how much data they collect, how they used that data? So are they sharing it for targeted advertising purposes? Are they selling it? Things like that? How much control a user has over their data? So can you get your data deleted no matter where you live or only if you live in a state where your privacy right is guaranteed.
We look at companies known track records, so do they have a good track record of protecting, in respecting and securing the information that they collect on people. We also have a set of minimum security standards that we look at for every product we review. Does it use encryption, does it require a strong password?
Things like that.
And so with the reviewing of the car companies, we found like our eyes were bugging out when we found how much data these car companies said in their privacy policies that they could collect on users. And so you ask, well, what are some of the things that really surprised us? And I mean, first off was just the scope of how much information these car companies said they could collect and you think about, Okay, a car should collect the information it needs to get me from point A to
point based safely. Right, Okay, that's like kind of the place where you start. Car companies felt like they went way beyond that. They're collecting information about They said they con collect information about your sex life, your sexual activity, your union membership, your genetic information, and your biometrics. On top of all the car stage data of where you're driving, when you're driving, how fast you're driving, how many people are in the car, what radio stations you're listening to,
and on and on and on. It was. It was huge. It was really frightening.
Actually, wow, So you mentioned right now some very startling like sexual activity, health information, these kinds of things. So what mechanisms or technologies are they using in the car to get that kind of data.
That's a good question. So we know that all modern cars are smart cars. It's not like you can go to the lot right now and buy a dumb car because all the cars that they're selling on the lots now pretty much are cars that have sensors built in to track your speed, you're braking, whether you're wearing your seat belt, They have microphones in the cars, they have cameras in the cars outside the car, so there's a lot of data that is being collected and the potential
for the data. They can collect everything, and this is kind of the tip of the iceberg. I just read some information last week about a company that was developing technology to use the indoor in camera in car cameras to study our emotions and moods to know what we're feeling when we're in our car, and so that's really scary. So they can collect the information through the sensors, the microphones,
the cameras. How are they collecting information about your sex life or even are they That's something that I can't answer. I don't I'm not inside of the car companies to know what they're doing. But all I can say for certain is if you buy a Nissan or Akiya, the privacy policies that we reviewed last year's made you consent to it that said that they could collect that information.
So you mentioned a couple of brands there, So I'm wondering if you guys spotted any regional differences between manufacturers and how they collect data or how much data they collect between let's say North American manufacturers versus European ones Asian ones. Was there any difference to how they approach this issue of data privacy.
Yeah, So we reviewed the privacy documentation as best we could find it for kind of North American cars, mostly US based, and we also looked at EU privacy documentation, and so privacy documentation varies a little bit. In the EU, they have what's called GDPR, which is their privacy protecting law. It gives consumers rights, right to be deleted, right to not have data collected without you, without your explicit consent,
things like that. In the US, we don't have a federal privacy law, and so you'll read the American privacy laws and you'll get an addendum for what's happening in California or maybe in Colorado or Virginia or a place like that. But across the board, car companies are saying they can collect a lot of information. In the EU, consumers are protected, they have certain rights, So everybody there will have the right to delete data. Here in the US,
not everybody will have the right to delete data. Consent is required to be gotten a little more explicitly in the EU than it is here in the US, and so those were the major differences. I think looking at EU privacy policies, they don't tend to go in as much detail about the data, how the data is collected, or what data is collected and how is it used. And you will get that in North American privacy policies.
And you spoke a little bit about consent. So I'm wondering if we dive into that a little bit more specifically. When we think of consent, we usually think in terms of social media companies, online services apps, things like that, where we physically click that we agree to specific terms and conditions. Albeit I don't think many of us actually
read the document itself. But how does this happen, Let's say, with the owner of a car, or even a passenger in a vehicle, how do they give consent to the manufacturer?
Yeah, consent is a really tricky issue, especially when it comes to cars. I you know, my family bought a car last year. At no point that I was I required to consent to the privacy policy for the car company that I bought. I chose not to download the app. If I downloaded the app, there would have been an opportunity to look at that privacy policy. Probably when the app was downloaded, and then the use of the connected services. Sometimes something will flash on the screen really quickly, Hey
do you consent to this? But to sit through a car in a car and scroll through, you know, five thousand words of illegal document isn't. Isn't usually the way that people are going to do it. And so consent is really tricky. And we saw this with's the story that came out from the New York Times recently where GM was collecting usage data on people's cars, sharing that with data brokers. The insurance companies were buying it from the data brokers, and people's interest rates were going up.
GM says, oh, we never did that without consent, But the consumers are like, I don't remember ever consenting to this. And it was a feature in there on Star and
so you know whether it happened at the dealer. We're hurt hearing a lot about when people buy cars, the salespeople are actually incentivized to get them to download the app and except all conditions or sign up for connected services, and the car companies really push this and so you might not have realized before you drove off the lot when the car salesman was walking you through the features they actually consented for you, and you didn't realize it.
And then it's hard to go in and an unconsent you know, once you've consented, it's really hard to kind of pull that back. And so and then there's apps, and then there's connected services. You know, if you use serious XM, do you call when you consented? So that's a problem. Consent is very murky. Car companies aren't very
explicitly getting it. And then there's the funny parts that are kind of funny hab but also funny said where you read the privacy policies and it'll say, hey, you know, if you use these connected services in your car, you consent to all this data being collected. And anybody who becomes a passenger in your car is consented to this privacy policy as well. And it's your duty as the driver of this car to let the person the passenger
know about this price policy, which is just ridiculous. Right, nobody picks their buddy up to go to a movie and says, hold on before we leave, let me read you this privy policy and make sure you consent to this data collection. That's just not how it works, and so consent is very it's a very dark subject. It's a very bad subject when it comes to this, and it needs to be improved.
Absolutely. It seems very, very disturbing.
So I'm wondering if have you received any specific responses from consumers after they've read your report, what kinds of the what's the vibe that we're getting from the people.
Yeah, so I think the first reaction from people was like, holy cow, what is happening? Which is great because when we were doing the research, that was our reaction too. We're like, holy cow, what's going on? This is really bad? How come no one's talking about this? And so we were really pleased to see that. You know, it wasn't just us that we were feeling that way when we put our research out, like other people were like, holy cow,
I had no idea. And I think that's in part because people don't buy cars all that freak, and if you bought a car ten years ago, you might not know that you go to buy a car now, and privacy is even something you need to contemplate and people can't can't rank privacy as something they do when they, you know, go car shopping, they have to look at price and affordability and safety and availability, and and then you know, people started sharing their own stories of the
car salesman that really pushed them to sign up for things because they would get a bonus if you signed up. We heard lots of stories from people that were trying to opt out and figure out how to opt out and just being really confused about how to do it, and can I disable the cellular data? Well maybe, but you might avoid your warranty. Can I ask my dealer to stop doing this? It's like, well, the dealer and the car company you aren't always on the same page
about data collection and data sharing. They're they're kind of pointing fingers back and forth at each other, so you might not get straight answers. You know, lots of stories like that. It was an interesting story. And Australia were a Toyota owner, lifelong Toyota owner I think, went to buy a new Toyota, put the deposit down and then while he's waiting for the vehicle to come in, learned about the privacy concerns. Contacted the dealer and said I
didn't know about this. Can I opt out? And they were like, well you can opt out, but it's not like you're not You're gonna You're gonna have your data collected probably, And he's like, well, I don't want the car, but they wouldn't give him back his deposit. He got a consumer group involved, and after a lot of back and forth with the dealer and the car company and people pointing fingers, he eventually got his his deposit back.
But it was a struggle, and so I think the biggest response is people were surprised and shocked and kind of angered and then asking well, what can we do? You know, what what options do we have? And unfortunately I am not able to give consumers a lot of good options because you can look and do your best to opt out of things and try not to give your consent. But again I worry that it's very confusing,
and sometimes consent might not be explicit asked. You can not download and use the app, which is what I did, but you're giving up some features in your car that people might find really useful. You cannot use the connected services, but you might be paying for them anyways. Or you know you'll get the free trial and not realize that by agreeing to that free trial, you're giving up a lot of data, and you might not be able to
delete your data. And so what I end up telling people is, you know, it's time for the US to have a strong federal privacy law where people have rights and car companies have to do better.
Yeah, I'm glad I bought a car like seven years ago, so here and all this stuff. I read recently that according to Mackenzie Report, the monetization of car data that's what we're talking about here, is projected to be a
huge industry seven hundred and fifty billion dollars. So we understand what's in it for the manufacturer, but for the consumer, it seems like there's a whole lot of issues there have How have the car manufacturers tried to justify this or or spend this maybe in a positive way the report, I know, I read in there that there was you guys mentioned privacy washing and the findings, meaning that they're pretending to protect consumers privacy without actually doing so.
Wondering what your thoughts on this are.
Yeah, Well, the car company's favorite argument about why they need all this data is for safety. Oh, we need all this data for safety reasons. This is just for safety. We're we're not collecting data for to make money off you.
We're collecting data for safety reasons. And to be fair, some of the data they collect is for safety, but we think that the amount of data that they collect to get you from point A to point B safely is way more than they need to And we found it very funny that, you know, the car companies would at the top of their privacy policies to say, we really care about your privacy and we've we've created these privacy principles and we've signed it on to them, and
then you go and read the privy principles. It's not things they're doing at all. They're not minimizing their data collection, they aren't being very transparent in everything they do. They don't have great consent mechanicisms where you know, people's choice is very clear and explicit, and so we called them out on that. I think I think that maybe they would disagree, but I think consumers will probably maybe we'll take a look at those privacy principles and also kind
of feel what we're feeling. It's like, no, you're not doing these things, or if you are, you're doing them really poorly. Can you do better?
Right, Yeah, I know we don't have this any type of federal privacy law like you just talked about. Is there any or have you guys seen any regulatory pressure at all to enact such a law to protect consumer privacy or is this going to be kind of I guess what you would call just just the way things are going forward.
Well, I hope it's not just the way things are going forward. It's my job to be pessimistic and optimistic. So yeah, there's a couple of things afoot. I mean, there is a draft federal privacy law that's been in existence. It's kind of languishing. One of the really positive things that we've seen since our research come out. As Senator Edward Markey has gotten involved. He sent letters to the car company the CEOs of fourteen car companies asking them
to clarify the questions that we couldn't get answered. He was disappointed in the responses and has asked the FTC to step in and use the full force of their investigative power to try and hold the car companies accountable for that. So that's a good step forward. As for the federal privacy law, well, that's something that we're pushing you know, like I, every time I get an opportunity to tell people that they should support this a strong consumer federal privacy law, I do it because I think
that's what we need. Interestingly, the car companies will also say we need a strong federal we need a They'll say they need it, we need a federal privacy law. I don't think that our version in their version is quite the same though. One of the reasons they say that is they claim that states having a patchwork of privacy makes it really difficult for them, which kind of makes me chuckle because I'm like, well, just pick the state with the strongest privacy and apply that to everybody.
That seems really easy, but it doesn't seem like something they're keen to do.
Yeah, but I do like your mindset right there, being pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. So kudos to you guys and the rest of folks at Mozilla for staying on top of this.
Where can the audience find more of your work?
Oh yeah, well, privacy not included. Dot Org is our buyer's guide where you can go and see our car reviews or reviews for your your smart speaker, your your fitness Tracker other things. So go there and if you see something that we didn't review that you'd like to review, we have a link there and let us know. We love, we love to hear from people and try and learn what they want us to review. So privacy not included dot org.
Everybody, go check that out.
And thank you Jen again for coming on the show and reminding us that we are almost always being watched, even in our cars as we are.
Thank you.
Hes Jordan with status ku news.
I'm on the ground in Wyoming County, West Virginia, coal country where for over a year, the corporate media and the politicians who represent West Virginia have been completely ignoring a major water crisis in some areas, including creeks and private drinking wells that residents get their water from. We've seen water that looks like it's contaminated from coal mines.
There was nothing compared to what we had coming out over and now the field so.
Private well, private water wells. Residents all over this community, most of them have water wells and it's supposed to be water from the aquifer, yes, but that looks like.
It's coming from a coal mines. They're saying it's coming from a coal mine.
Yeah, the West. Coal mines all over the place here.
Yes, we've seen water that have white particles and green looking fungus.
I had a hydrologis send me pictures too. That's living. All that white stuff, it's for living organism. It's growing, that's growing.
Oh my god.
Well, for over a year, residents have been coming down with illnesses for what are the main symptoms?
You've been seen falling in some cases, fever and abnormals.
Some residents have suddenly died recently of unknown causes, and animals are dropping dead abruptly. Please subscribe to Status kup News on YouTube so we can get more support to keep on this important story that the corporate media is totally burying.
So we're in the backwoods West Virginia, Wyoming County. Right down below this hill is Indian Creek, which uh short, looks contaminated to me. I see some stuff in there that looks like a sheen. I don't know if it's oil or something. But you live here, Paul, and tell me about when you first started noticing there were issues with the water.
You could start smelling it and I come out and looked, and yeah, you could say it's been it's been a while now, at.
Least over a here.
Yes, and if you could say from right here, you could say it right there really bad.
See the brown kind of almost looks like brown clay or settlement.
Look, the DP doesn't give a shit about this. Christ Look look at this.
Yeah, we're gonna walk.
On down through here. I know when I was driving down here, probably about a quarter of a mile, I looked and it was just as dirty.
Yeah, look at this, guys.
Look this is your d PEA Bay West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
This is your protection. That is not normal in a fresh creek. We've seen videos from Richard showing that brown stuff. Some independent testing has tested for high levels of manganese, lead, arsenic iron, But the state environmental testing they test for who knows only four things, and I don't know what they are. They say it's safe, but I mean your eyes and your nose won't lie. Right now, it doesn't smell so bad, But when it's hotter or it rains, the smell gets worse.
Oh, yes, when it gets warmer, it it really gets bad. Yeah, you keep your door shut. You can't stand smell. Smells just like sooge like what sewage?
And you reached out to Senator Mansion's office. Tell me about what up in there?
Okay?
When I reached Senator Mansion's office, first lady I spoke with she was from the Charleston office, and she tried to help me what she could. But when it came down to paying for my whale water testing because it was a public well, they told me in the beginning they was going to pay for it. And then the lady at the Charleston office, I wasn't using her no more. A lady from another office was contacting me that I
had used before. When I asked him to pay for the water, he told me they wouldn't pay for it. So I called back and told the lady I said I wouldn't vote for him for Dogcatcher. So I hung up, and it must have made him mad, so they called me back. A man did, and he told me he said that was a state issue, not a federal issue, and don't call back.
And this was a man from the Charleston office or the DC office.
I'm not sure which office it was from, but it was from his office. And I also have the number in there from where they had called, so.
Let me get this trade Mansion is the senator of the state of West Virginia. Yet they told you it was a state issue and not a federal issue, so he couldn't help you.
Yes, it kept wanting me to fill out papers for them to represent me, and I did it, and then what they would do. They just keep sending papers to try to have But when it came to the money of having the well or the water from the creek, they wasn't gonna pay for that.
What were they sending you papers for to.
A paper to represent may Because they couldn't do it on their own, they had to have my signature.
I'm not an expert on landownership, but he is the elected senator of West Virginia. I don't think he needs your signature to come down here and inspect her to look into a contaminated creek and residents that are sick. I don't know. It sounds like they just kind of gave you the go around.
Yeah, they did. I filled out three papers. I have filled out three papers, and the man did say that to me not to call back, that it was a state not a federal issue.
Can I ask you, I've talked to residents who their dogs have died, roosters suddenly dying, their cats have gotten sick and died.
I've men seeing coons, men seeing deer dead, seeing my dogs get this like, they're sick one day and they're dead the next before you can even take them to the lead or anything.
How many dogs do you think lost two?
I've had about twenty roosters down my dogs. Anything it drinks out of that creek. I had to go about store bought water, It'll die here.
They are the ones that are left drinking out of the creek.
Still, no I buy water, live water. I ain't got many left. I ain't got three roosters left out about thirty.
Your cats have had issues? Were they ever drinking out of the creek or just inhaling? Inhaling? Yeah, so the cats were also smelling this and they you've had to take them to the vet for respiratory stuff. Right, So what you're saying is when they were born, they could meow, and now they can't. They're getting health problems. I just spoke with a woman bad diarrhea, nausea.
I haven't been able to breathe hardly, as you can tell I'm a little oars and we've had diary and stuff going on pretty bad at my house.
You've been having diarrhea anything else. It's just secondlous.
So I gotta go see a specialist over my stomach.
Right now. We're wanting a puke. I just don't have the appetite stuff.
But yeah, the headaches, the dryness in my mouth, the funny taste in my mouth.
You seen fairly young. I don't know. I mean, I'm not at I'll be forty one next month. Right before all this, were you relatively healthy? Yeah, I didn't have no problem. I can get doctor records for you. Could these kind of things right now? It's causing you know, the stomach stuff. But could this lead to potentially worse issues down the road.
Yes, And.
Digesting all these chemicals that we are seeing that it has been tested for these whales can cause cancer. It can cause all kinds of different things, so especially if it's not treated. So I can if they're continuing to drink this and they're not being notified that hey, this wonders will be bad and has all these chemicals, I mean, just keep drinking it. It's it's not gonna be a good result.
In the end. Have you had any issues from showering or drinking the water?
Yeah, I've had trouble from I'm scarred up. I'm across my shoulders from showering in the water.
If you want to show so all those white marks and splotches or.
They were bumps, and then when they would heal, it would leave me scarred.
And did when did you start noticing that? Or when were you told that those were on your skin?
Uh? I had a buyopsy done. I had a boy done.
You got some in the front to you.
I had a buyopsy done a year ago from the b A Hospital and b A Hospital told me they don't know what it is.
But it started around the same time that Jamie's yard was flooded about February twenty twenty three. Yes, and did it? Uh? Did it it or anything?
Yeah?
We did itch at times. They gave me some crane to put on it, but that wasn't that wasn't doing anything for it. So I just left it alone, let it here on its own, and it would ca me.
The dermatologist basically said, I don't know what it is.
Yeah, they told me they didn't know what it was, and that was after a biopsy.
Uh, any problems with your animals? Did they used to drink out of the creek.
Well, you say out there, I got a chicken house. I don't have no chickens in it because my chickens was dying and I wasn't going to I wasn't going to let it continue.
You were in the Navy, yes, so you fight for your country and this is what's happening to you right there. I mean that's kind of a symbolic, right you. You're a veteran and you dealing with this and the government that sent you out is not even returning people's calls here.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're giving us the run around. And you could tell that it's not just it's not just the state, it's the county. The southern counties in West Virginia built the northern counties from when coal was came. So now they've forgotten us. We're the forgotten, Like I told Joe Manchi's office, we're the forgotten people of the Appalachian Mountains.
What about the governor, I mean, he is a coal baron, he was a billionaire, he's got a coal empire, hasn't paid hundreds of millions of dollars and taxes and unpaid clean up for mines. I looked into it. I haven't heard anything from the governor on this, have you.
No, No, I haven't heard anything from the county, to the state, to the federal I haven't heard anything from nobody.
And the EPA told you were expendable as long as they got jobs. That's basically the way, you know. I took it, and I had asked him again what he said. He said, He goes, I'm not personally saying that. That's the way they think when they come in here and they say, well, we can't shut the minds down because four or five people has died. This county and the other counties in West Virginia and Kentucky Tennessee built this country. We built it, and we need them. We need a
country to step in and do something. They're poisoning everybody, so it's time for them to give back to us. So that's what we want.