In the US, Toyota, BMW and seven other car brands have been accused of sharing data about drivers without their knowledge.
In the US Congress, a number of senators are now concerned about motorists' right to privacy, because 9 car brands have allegedly passed on motorists' GPS data to the authorities.
All without the drivers consenting to it or even knowing anything about it. The New York Times writes that.
The senators believe that brands Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, BMW , Volkswagen, Subaru and Nissan have already admitted that they have shared GPS data.
Something the car brands in the US said way back in 2014 that a court order was needed, because they wanted to pass on.
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The senators believe that only 5 car brands – Ford, General Motors, the Stellantis group, Honda and Tesla – asked the police for such a warrant to hand over GPS data in return.
But only Tesla actually told its customers about the authorities' request for GPS data from the cars, it says.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, the competition and consumer protection authority, the senators write that GPS data from cars is considered part of privacy.
And that the authorities must therefore obtain a judge's permission every time they want to snoop on motorists.
It is certainly not the first time that the authorities have found it difficult to stay within the framework that ensures the right to privacy. We find a frightening example in Germany.
In the German city of Cologne, there is such poor control over safety in the speed cameras that data on 45,000 motorists was freely available on the authority's website. Read more about it here .
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