San Francisco, Sep 8 Automakers Nissan and Kia can collect data on their drivers' "sexual activity" and "sex lives," and may sell information to third parties, a new report has found.
According to the maker of the Firefox web browser Mozilla, most automakers can check various sources to obtain personal information about drivers after they connect their smartphones to vehicle-connected services.
"They can collect super intimate information about you -- from your medical information, your genetic information, to your 'sex life' (seriously), to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car -- in huge quantities," said the researchers.
"They then use it to invent more data about you through 'inferences' about things like your intelligence, abilities, and interests," they added.
The interest of Nissan in users' "sexual activity" is mentioned in the privacy policy.
This brand was ranked second-to-last as it collected some of the most disturbing types of data and reserved the right to share or sell it.
Kia's privacy policy also includes the collection of "sex life" data.
Six automobile manufacturers have reserved the right to collect genetic information, the report revealed.
According to the report, VW is interested in driving behaviour, among other things. Audi knows a lot about drivers' habits, visited locations, streaming music, and driving speeds, and claims that they can share and even sell that information to third parties.
Moreover, the report showed that about 84 per cent of car brands share or sell user data with data brokers, service providers, and others. About 56 per cent can share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a "request".
In 92 per cent of cases, drivers have little to no control over their data, as only two brands, Renault and Dacia, stated that all drivers have the right to have their data deleted.
These vehicles are only available in Europe, where they are covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
"It’s so strange to us that dating apps and sex toys publish more detailed security information than cars," the researchers stated.
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