Your Car Is Watching You: The Hidden Data Highway Inside Modern Vehicles

Modern connected cars act as rolling data centers, collecting location histories, who’s in the car, what you listen to, and even biometrics like weight or facial expressions, often with little protection for consumers. Insurance companies and data brokers buy and sell this information, potentially raising rates or enabling targeted marketing. A Mozilla review found major car brands failing basic privacy standards, and GM faced FTC action over selling location data. With new U.S. rules pushing advanced impaired‑driving tech that could widen data collection—and uneven protections in the U.S. and Europe—consumers are advised to opt out of telematics, request and delete collected data, and adjust privacy settings, though comprehensive data ownership and consent safeguards are far from guaranteed.