Your car is your worst asset for privacy. Here's why.

Two out of every three cars sold feature embedded connectivity, according to Counterpoint Research. Mozilla *Privacy Not Included lead Jen Caltrider joins Wealth! to discuss the state of privacy in modern cars.

"Every car that people buy these days is bad for privacy. There are no good options for new cars for privacy," Caltrider explains. She points to Tesla (TSLA), Nissan, and Kia's privacy policies as particularly striking, as they seek to collect very personal data.

"When you think about privacy, we're going to have to give up data in our connected world. It's just how it works. And what you want to see is a product that only collects the data it needs to give you the service. So for a car, you want it to collect only the data it needs to get you from point A to point B safely and then use it only for that," she says. However, most cars today collect much more data to sell to advertisers, data brokers, and insurance companies. Modern cars are equipped with microphones, cameras, and sensors that all collect information to make inferences about users.

Caltrider adds that while this technology is way ahead, the privacy solutions "are way behind."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video transcript

Picture this, you hop in the car after a busy day of work, you punch your address in to ways or whatever app that you're using to avoid traffic and connect your phone so you can play some music all the while your car is tracking every move you make.

According to counterpoint research, two out of every three cars sold feature embedded connectivity and this is expected to grow to almost 100% by 2030.

And the sales force survey finds 65% of drivers are unfamiliar with the concept of a connected car.

Internet oriented nonprofit Mozilla spent over 600 hours researching various car brands as privacy and their practices.

Here were some of the takeaways.

We've got one of the authors of that report, Jen Krier who is the Mozilla product director of Privacy not included.

Great to have you here on the show with us, Jen.

I mean, what was the most astounding finding from the hours of research?

Hundreds of hours of research that you put towards this study?

Well, uh the most astounding thing is that every car uh that people buy these days, it is bad for privacy there are no good options for new cars, for privacy, for somebody who wants to go out and buy a car and cares about that.

That was really disturbing.

Which of all of the vehicles that you studied was the worst at protecting privacy.

You know, it was really hard to pick a worst because they were all pretty bad.

Um, you know, Tesla, of course, raised a lot of eyebrows.

Um, but were they the worst?

You know, it's hard to say.

I mean, um Nissan said in their privacy policy that you had to consent to, they could collect information on your sexual activity, Kia, so they could collect information on your sex life.

Others talked about genetic information.

Um So it's really hard to pick one, I think across the board, connected cars are all bad privacy.

And so how can the connected cars?

Because I mean, based on those surveys that we were just rattling off, it's not gonna go anywhere any time soon.

How can they become better about protection of privacy?

Well, I mean, when you, when you think about privacy, you know, we're gonna have to give up data in our connected world.

It's just how it works.

And one what you want to see is, is a product that collects data, only collect the data.

It needs to give you the service.

So for a car, you want it to collect only the data, it needs to get you from point A to point B safely and, and then use it only for that no other reason.

Um Unfortunately, that's not what's happening with cars.

Cars are collecting an insane amount of data.

Some of it they use to get us from point a point be safely, but a lot of it, they use to make money off of us to um share for targeted advertising purposes to sell um to data brokers where insurance companies can scoop it up and, and raise our rates if we, if it looks like we're driving poorly.

Um And, and then there's the questions about, you know, there's cameras in the car, there's microphones in the car, there's sensors.

So there are no how many people are in the car and how fast you're going and how hard you're breaking and what you're listening to and all that can be gathered to create these inferences about us that know, you know, things like our intelligence, our abilities where we go for dinner every Thursday night.

And so it's all a big problem and the solutions are, are way behind.