√US judge rules car-makers can lawfully store and sell owners’ text messages

In a landmark case for digital privacy, a US judge has ruled the way car-makers collect their customer’s data from infotainment systems is lawful.

A US federal judge has ruled in favour of four major car-makers after a class action lawsuit was brought against the automotive companies, alleging they unlawfully collect and store text messages and call logs from phones connected to their infotainment systems.

As first reported by US cybersecurity publication The Record, the lawsuit was filed in a Washington state federal court and related to the jurisdiction’s Privacy Act following the dismissal of the case in a district court.

The class action lawsuit accused General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda of illegally collecting personal data from mobile phones connected to their vehicle’s infotainment systems – which is then distributed to advertisers and law enforcement, depending on certain circumstances.

According to The Record, the federal judge found the district court had “properly dismissed” the cases against the four car makers, while a related case filed against Ford had already been dismissed.

“To succeed at the pleading stage of a WPA [Washington Privacy Act] claim, a plaintiff must allege an injury to ‘his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation’,” the federal court ruling said.

At present, there are no universal privacy regulations to protect car owners from having their personal data collected by a vehicle’s infotainment system, which also does not include an ‘opt-in’ feature so owners can choose whether or not they want their data to be shared.

There have not yet been any reported instances of car owners taking auto-makers to court in Australia relating to privacy concerns.

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