What Everybody Knows About You: Your Car
This article is part of a continuing series about data collection today. The previous article talked about devices in your home.
Modern cars are probably the most intensive conglomerations of computing power we have in day-to-day life. Estimates of the number of sensors per automobile range from 70 to 100. The manufacturers capture this information and, if given your consent, share it with your insurer.
The Mozilla Foundation made writing this section of the series easy by doing their own study of 25 automobile brands from several countries. They conclude that “Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy” and are running a campaign to stop intrusive data collection.
The manufacturers supplement information collected inside the car with data such as demographic information (gender, race, age), and family and professional information. Some information comes from car dealers, and a lot is bought from data brokers such as social media networks and governments. From the data, companies can deduce information about your personality. Specific types of information manufacturers collect include:
- Personal information such as address, phone number, diver’s license, and Vehicle (VIN) number
- Driving behavior (speed, accelerations, braking, steering)
- Use of the radio and other media channels, what’s played on them
- Weather and environmental data
- Location and routes taken
- Images captured by cameras
- Gestures and voice commands
- Information about accidents
- Sensor data such as number of passengers, tire pressure, and fuel level
- Camera, GPS, and audio data from a connected mobile device
- Whether your seatbelt is fastened
- Cruise control data
- Biometric data
Parsons told me people think of the car as a private place. But that expectation crashes up against the reality of modern cars.
In a recent murder case (Alex Murdaugh in the state of South Carolina), prosecutors treated the jury to a huge collection of data taken from cars and cell phones (although from the article I could not tell how that data would help jurors deliver a verdict).
In short, some of your most common everyday activities leave tiny, individually trivial data breadcrumbs that are eagerly consumed by devices. The details are collected by companies and combined with other data they collect to produce an eerily detailed view of your interests and personality—a view that can be shared with prosecutors. And you are being measured, slotted away, and catalogued in relation to the rest of the population.
The next article of the series covers fitness devices and related personal equipment.
<< Read the previous part of this series
