A fresh investigation has revealed that car manufacturers are collecting and sometimes selling their driver data – including many of Australia’s favourite brands.

Consumer group Choice analysed the privacy policies of different car manufacturers — including Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Tesla, MG, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Isuzu Ute — and found that many were allowing swathes of personalised data to be collected.

Rafi Alam, senior campaigns and policy advisor at Choice, said that Kia, Hyundai and Tesla were the “worst offenders when it came to protecting the privacy of their customers”.

“Kia and Hyundai both collect and share voice recognition data with third parties, along with other information,” he said.

“Tesla takes it one step further, collecting ‘short video clips and images’ captured from the camera inside the vehicle, and shares some data with third parties.”

Choice’s investigation also found that Toyota, Ford, MG and Mazda collect and sometimes share customer data, with Toyota even collecting vehicle location data and driver behaviour including acceleration, braking and cornering.

Toyota allows for customer voice data to be sent to a “third-party provider of automotive voice and AI innovation products”, according to its privacy policy.

Three brands (Mitsubishi, Subaru and Isuzu Ute) didn’t collect or share driver data in Australia.

Wrongful use

It was revealed in March that American drivers were experiencing increases in their insurance premiums based on data and reports sold by car manufacturers to third-party brokers, who then on-sold the personal data to insurance companies.

Alam said that under Australia’s current privacy laws, businesses “are able to write their own rules through their privacy policies”.

“The results of our investigation are a timely reminder that Australia’s privacy laws are woefully out of date, and certainly not fit for purpose in a market where cars are collecting and sharing personal information en masse,” he said.

“At a minimum, the federal government should implement a fair-and-reasonable-use test, which would legally require businesses to collect and use data in line with consumer expectations.”

Experts have previously told The New Daily about the risks involved in widespread data collection, including how it becomes easier to commit identity theft with larger data sets, the threat of data breaches and how it is impossible to police how personal information is used if it leaves Australia.

Brokering market

According to previous analysis of privacy policies, 84 per cent of global car manufacturers share or sell user data, turning consumers’ private information into a side product to be sold for research, marketing or ‘business purposes’.

Chinese-made car manufacturers like MG and Great Wall Motors also “commonly disclose personal information to parties located in China” during the “ordinary course of business”.

Great Wall utes are valued for their affordability, but their privacy policies are dicey at best. Photo: AAP

This data includes names, addresses, gender, date of birth, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, usernames and passwords, and profile photos from apps and devices connected to the car ecosystem.

Once the data leaves Australia or is sold to a third-party data broker or online marketplace, Australia’s privacy laws cannot dictate how it is used.

The global data brokering market is worth around $380 billion and many businesses, from car manufacturers to payment processors, have turned their customers’ data into a lucrative secondary income stream.