How Much Privacy Do You Really Have In Modern Vehicles?

Whenever the issue of vehicular privacy comes up, the discussion almost immediately pivots to individuals either defending or condemning the status quo. But this often happens without either side of the argument having a firm understanding of how much information is actually being obtained inside today’s automobiles.

While we’ve covered the topic frequently, articles have typically focused on specific issues rather than overall scope. But things are different this time, with the Mozilla Foundation recently issuing a study trying to assess just how far-reaching the automotive industry’s quest for data has become.

Based upon the data provided in the Mozilla report, and some additional data furnished by Axios, things look pretty bad. Older vehicles equipped with any amount of connectivity amassed loads of information regarding control inputs, positional data, music preferences, and just about everything that went through a car’s ECU. But newer models are equipped with sensor arrays, exterior camera systems, interior microphones, and maybe even an in-cabin camera that keeps tabs on the driver in real-time.

McKinsey & Company claims that’s sufficient for the average vehicle to compile and then transmit roughly 25 gigabytes of data per hour. For the sake of comparison, streaming a 2-hour video at 1080p HD and 60 frames per second is only about 6 gigabytes. That’s a truly staggering amount of information and that estimate comes from several years ago — presumably meaning newer vehicles are even better equipped to harvest data.

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