Your car is following you – how to reclaim your data privacy on the open road

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Today's vehicles know where you live, when you travel, and your driving habits.
• We can lock down our PCs and smartphones, but it's harder to stop our cars from sharing data.
• See what information is being collected and how you can reduce the flow.

Many adults look forward to passing their driving test and purchasing their first car. For most of us, a car provides freedom: the ability to go anywhere we please, at any time, without relying on public transport. 

However, cars from a decade or more ago are vastly different from vehicles on the market today. If you can afford to buy a newer model, you're buying into far more than wheels and an engine. Today's vehicles rely heavily on computers, sensors, satellite communications, mobile technology, the cloud, and systems that not only monitor the vehicle's health but can also monitor you. 

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There's no shortage of media coverage about all the personal data being collected from our PCs, smartphones, browsers, and social media platforms. But have you ever considered the information your car collects and what happens to it?

Here's what you should know in 2026, and what you can do to reduce the flow of information from your vehicle to third parties.

Modern smart car technologies

I had a blast turning my first vehicle — a 2007 Mercedes — into a smart car with a range of accessories, including a portable Android infotainment dashboard, satnav, installable reverse camera, and 12v port expanders. 

Eventually, I upgraded to a newer Volkswagen, and it really hit home how much technology has changed over the past few years. 

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Technologies that represent luxury, convenience, and comfort are key selling points for new cars, but are we giving away our personal data in return?

A smart dashboard and a satellite navigation system are now included by default in many cars, but there is a lot more going on under the hood. Today's smarter cars now commonly include:

• Infotainment systems: Dashboard displays with useful applications, including vehicle and driving information, weather, music, contacts, and more. This may also include voice assistants for hands-free control.
• Satellite navigation/GPS: A satnav system assists drivers in reaching their destination, showing the best routes and traffic warnings.
• Mapping: Your vehicle may also include mapping functions, typically based on LiDAR technology, that scan your environment to create 3D maps for parking, hazard detection, and driving assistance, such as for highway driving.
• Mobile device synchronization: You may be able to connect your Android or iOS smartphone to your car via Bluetooth or a USB port for hands-free use, access to mobile apps, or making calls on the road. 
• Car monitoring systems: Under-the-hood diagnostics monitor your vehicle and alert you to potential problems, such as tire pressure warnings, sensor failures, or engine issues.
• Sensors: Modern cars can contain a variety of sensors that are crucial to various functions, ranging from parking and highway assistance to environmental hazard warnings.
• Onboard cameras: Cameras, both in and outside of the vehicle, are used as dashcams to help you park or monitor driver movement. 
• Emergency services: GPS and mobile technologies can automatically alert emergency services when accidents occur. 
• Black boxes: Also known as telematics or Event Data Recorder (EDR) boxes, these small GPS and sensor-based devices can be installed in cars. Their main goal is to monitor driver behavior, and it is sometimes necessary for cheaper insurance, especially for new drivers. 

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What data is your car collecting?

Consider the following scenario: 

You turn on the ignition and wait for your infotainment dashboard to load. While you're waiting, you connect your mobile device via Bluetooth, sync your contacts for hands-free calling, and load up Spotify to play your favorite podcast. You enter the address of your workplace in your satnav, finally press "accept" on that annoying updated terms and conditions (T&Cs) notice you've been ignoring for days, and start your drive.

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The volume of data collected depends on your car's model and manufacturer, as well as on what you've agreed to in the T&Cs of any services you use. But in a matter of minutes, your actions could have revealed the condition of your car, your home address, the locations you frequent, how you drive, your travel and entertainment preferences, your contacts, your mobile device data, and more.

We may not consider our cars huge data repositories, but when you break it down, everything from our tires to our smartphones could be exposing our data.

• Your location and destination: GPS systems are installed in today's vehicles for navigation, satellite navigation, theft tracking, and monitoring business fleets. Just as your smartphone's location feature could be exploited to track your precise location, unless this information is securely managed, your car could reveal where you are — as well as where your home is likely to be.
• Travel patterns: Researchers have found that modern cars with Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) do not simply monitor tire pressure — their sensors also broadcast unique IDs that can be captured by anyone with a wireless receiver, allowing them to learn your travel patterns. 
• Your driving habits: While researchers are exploring how emotion could be used to improve autonomous vehicle standards, manual driving habits are already being recorded. EDR boxes can be installed by willing participants who want cheaper insurance in return for having their speed, braking patterns, location, steering, and general driving skills monitored, but a car's internal sensors, GPS, and cameras could end up recording your habits, too, as many manufacturers collect such data for risk profiling. 
• Your physical appearance and behavior: The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed [PDF] the inclusion of camera-based driver monitoring systems in future vehicles. While the idea is to stop car owners from driving when they are drunk or otherwise impaired, this could mean that you will be remotely monitored every time you step into your vehicle. 
• Weight: Many cars have internal sensors that detect who is sitting in which seat, using a combination of sensors and sometimes cameras to estimate your weight. You may be alerted when a seat belt is not in use, or sensors may be used to ready airbag deployment in accidents. 
• Your biometrics: Ford recently filed a patent for an internal camera capable of reading your lips, gestures, and facial expressions, and some organizations are pushing for facial recognition in cars to "remember" who is driving and their preferences. Biometrics are also used to unlock vehicles. If Mercedes has its way, you'll soon be able to open your future car with a wave of your hand.
• Audio records: Your voice and audio commands may be stored by speech recognition software. 
• Visual capture: Dashcams, internal cameras, LiDAR mapping systems, and external camera-and-sensor combinations capture still images and video for a variety of purposes, including navigation, obstacle and hazard detection, and accident recording. However, your driving behavior, as well as that of your vehicle occupants, may also be captured.  
• Phone data: If you choose to sync your smartphone with your car via Bluetooth, you can create a profile and access mobile apps for navigation, entertainment, and communication. However, this could mean that contact data, text messages, and call histories — including logs of calls when your handset is not connected to your car — may be recorded and stored. 
• Infotainment: Your infotainment dashboard will create user profiles that may record behavioral data, such as your entertainment interests, apps used, calls made, and more.
• Vehicle diagnostics: Modern vehicles constantly monitor themselves, collecting data points such as engine health, tire pressure, odometer (distance) readings, service history, and logs. 

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Where does this information go?

Several interesting cases and research studies reveal where driver data has ended up — including in the hands of organizations you wouldn't necessarily expect and that you didn't knowingly consent to. It's something the FTC has on its radar, to the point that the US agency has warned manufacturers against unfair data-use and sharing practices.

According to Mozilla, many car manufacturers use deliberately vague language in their privacy policies to grant themselves unconditional freedom to collect, store, and even share and sell your data. Everything from telemetrics to camera footage and infotainment profiles could end up in a vehicle manufacturer's servers, but there is no universal rule: it all depends on how the company treats driver data.

Tesla, for example, can collect swathes of data on you, although you can choose to authorize which third parties may access records, as long as there is no legal requirement for Tesla to hand over your information. However, Tesla doesn't exactly have the best track record with user data. 

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There have been cases of insurers purchasing driver data to generate policy pricing and create risk profiles; usage programs rely on your vehicle's telemetry to calculate insurance rates; General Motors allegedly sold user geolocation data without consent; and data brokers constantly purchase and trade consumer data to fuel their businesses. It's highly unlikely they've ignored the automotive field's potential. 

While online services, mobile developers, and consumer device manufacturers are often held to strict data protection standards and laws, vehicle manufacturers have slipped through the cracks — creating a black hole of user data that is often shared and sold under vague, lengthy terms and conditions.  

How to stop the data flow

A study conducted by the Hermes Foundation estimates that 95% of smart cars reaching the market this year will send personal data to manufacturers' servers. In the US, by 2027, all new vehicles sold will need to come with sensors and cameras that monitor drivers for signs of impairment.

While the prospect of machine learning or AI deciding whether or not you are fit to drive is something out of an apocalyptic novel, there's not much we can do to stem the tide — especially when these decisions come from federal mandates. However, that doesn't mean we are entirely powerless to keep our data out of others' hands. 

1. Choose your vehicle wisely: Learn what information your vehicle can collect about you. You can use the Vehicle Privacy Report website to gain a rough idea of what your car is capable of. 
2. Check out the manufacturer's track record: A quick Google search, "[car manufacturer], user data privacy," and selecting "news" will give you an idea of any recent data breaches or consumer trust violations related to a vehicle manufacturer. If they have a poor track record, you might want to pick a different car. 
3. Data sharing apps and permissions: Explore your car's infotainment dashboard and any accompanying apps to set your preferred data sharing permissions. You will likely find these options under "settings" on the dashboard, although they may also come under "data usage" or "data policies." Revoke as many permissions as you can, and opt out of voluntarily sharing data with third parties. 
4. Check terms and conditions: Yes, very few of us actually do this — we become frustrated, skip to the bottom, and click accept. But at least scroll down to the user data section to understand what information is collected and where it might end up.
5. File a privacy request: You may be able to file a privacy request with your car's manufacturer to receive a copy of all the information collected about you. You may also be able to request data deletion.

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Opt out of data sharing whenever you can, and treat any insurance program that relies on your telemetry to generate rates with caution. Unfortunately, until the law catches up, we face potentially time-consuming and complex tasks to protect our privacy. Failing that, make your next car an older, low-tech clunker.