New Electric Cars are Cool… But What About Your Privacy??

New electric cars on the market such as the Tesla Model 3 can now be controlled from your fingertips via smartphone. You can unlock and start them with a touch of a button on your phone. When you are inside of the vehicle, you can then simply ask it how to get from Point A to Point B and it will magically find the best route (with charging points) … some of these cars even come equipped with cameras that can predict if you are falling asleep.

These highly advanced bells and whistles that come with the cars sound great and like it would benefit our productivity, but consider that all of these Hi-Tech features also means that these cars are gathering a lot of information about us and what surrounds us. It is estimated that vehicles can collect up to several terabytes of data per hour. This data is later used to “train” algorithms and to tailor the car’s features exactly to the driver’s preferences.

Many of us don’t realize this data is stored on the manufacturer’s data centers. Something we think about even less is how secure is our data? What data is shared and to who?

With all of the recent data privacy concerns and an increasing number of cyberattacks, we’re more and more vulnerable of being exposed. Where do you stand? Do you agree on government-based cybersecurity laws being put in place to protect us? Or should we have the private industry dictate that and continue innovating with the data (our information) they capture?

Food for thought.