What Does Your Car Know About You?
- Selina Paul
- Nov 12, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 1, 2025
When it comes to data privacy, most of us think of our smartphones and all the data they collect from us everyday. It's common knowledge by now that our phones track what we do and where we go; we toggle our location services, accept cookies, and are served ads based on our activity. But there is another data-hungry culprit that we use just as often, one that seems to fly (or roll) under the radar - our vehicles.
Smart Car or Spy Car
Activity monitoring in cars dates back to the late 90s when the first automatic emergency call system was introduced in commercial vehicles. By connecting satellite and cellular technology with automobiles, car companies began standardizing features like remote diagnostics and GPS signalling. Since then, the data collection capabilities of vehicles have only continued to grow.
Today’s ‘connected cars’ are equipped with internet access that seamlessly stores information and sends it back to the manufacturer. While this connectivity can be useful for things like car maintenance and safety, consumer privacy is taking a backseat.
Car companies regularly collect data on how, when, and where you drive. They amass information on your acceleration, how fast you turn corners, whether you engage in harsh braking, and when you go over specific speeds. They log data on the lengths and routes of trips you take and have access to your car’s current location at almost any time. What used to require installing an external device for specific vehicle monitoring, is now embedded within all modern vehicles.
Modern cars are a privacy nightmare on wheels
But it’s not just your driving history that’s being collected. According to research by the Mozilla foundation, car companies are capturing excessive amounts of personal driver data, too. This includes how you use the infotainment system and third-party apps (like Google Maps or Sirius XM), but also information that is transmitted by linking your phone to your car. Your vehicle can even gather data on things like medical and genetic characteristics, religious or philosophical beliefs, race, call records, and favourite songs. Companies then use this data to create profiles of drivers’ intelligence, abilities, and interests.
The Data Market
That car companies are collecting so much data on consumers is worrying enough, but beyond this car companies are also known to exploit and unknowingly share driver information with others.
Car privacy experts have described the profit potential of individual driving data as the "new oil"
Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission issued a 5-year ban on General Motors selling driver data, after they were revealed to have been sharing sensitive geolocation and driving behavior data to consumer reporting agencies without the consent of their customers. Through their connected car service OnStar, GM captured drivers’ precise location history - including places of worship and health care facilities - along with other driver behavior data and sold this information to third-party brokers and insurers. This data was then used to set insurance premiums and even caused some drivers to lose their car insurance.
No Easy Exit
Drivers are often left in the dark about the ways their data is being collected and traded, as car companies typically hide these terms within the car’s privacy policy – a document which is usually as vague and confusing as legally possible.
"These policies are designed to make it hard for drivers to know if they're signing away their privacy rights"
There is also the fact that opting out of a vehicle’s data collection and privacy policy is oftentimes not a viable option. Agreeing to data sharing is often required to use a vehicle’s essential functions, like the infotainment system and phone pairing services. For some car brands, opting out also means not receiving crucial vehicle updates or real-time alerts.
As car technology keeps advancing, every new sensor, pairing app, and software update adds another layer of vulnerability to driver privacy. While questions about who owns and controls driver data remain unresolved, what’s clear is that the future of cars isn’t just technical – but deeply personal as well.
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