Analysis
Your car knows where you slept last night
Modern vehicles collect location, speed and even seat-weight data. Our investigation found at least nine companies buying it.
Data & investigations editor
13 min read
A connected car dashboard. Most drivers never read the data-sharing terms.
Over six months, our data team bought, requested and analysed vehicle data from brokers, insurers and app developers. The results were more detailed than we expected.
In one dataset, we could see where a car was parked every night for a year, how fast it was driven and how many seats were occupied.
How the data travels
Most connected cars send data to the manufacturer. Many manufacturers share it with partners for navigation, insurance and research. Some partners resell it. Each step is covered by a clause in terms and conditions that few drivers read.
“You agreed to it when you pressed OK on the screen the first time you drove the car,” one data broker told us.
What you can do
Check your car’s privacy settings and opt out of data sharing where possible.
Ask the manufacturer for a copy of your data under GDPR.
Be cautious with insurance apps that offer discounts for tracking.
Regulators in two countries have opened inquiries following our reporting.
Mateo Ruiz
Data & investigations editor
Mateo leads Pressio’s data team and the investigations that come out of spreadsheets.
