A class action lawsuit has been filed against Tesla, after allegations that employees shared electric car camera recordings internally.
agency revealed Reuters – In a report seen by the specialized energy platform – that video clips recorded by the built-in Tesla Dash Cam and guard mode were shared within the electric car maker in private or group conversations between employees.
The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Northern California by the law firm Fitzgerald Joseph on behalf of a Tesla owner in San Francisco.
Details of the lawsuit against Tesla
The lawsuit focuses on Tesla’s violation of the California State Constitution and California privacy laws and privacy policies; It also claims that the US company misled customers about data privacy.
The lawsuit calls for preventing the company from continuing this behavior, and seeks actual and punitive damages, which may exceed $5 million.
It also points out that there are significant potential privacy costs for the company’s clients; The owner would need to pay a professional fee to disable the car’s cameras, thus reducing the car’s paid functionality.
One of the former employees of the company said that he put tape on his private car cameras for some time, after he saw the amount of access to the information that the company had, according to statements seen by the specialized energy platform, quoting the “Specialized Energy” platform.Electric” (Electrek).
Since the Reuters report appeared on April 6, 2023, the lawsuit includes speculation that these videos were “likely” shared externally, although this was not explicitly stated in the report.
So filing a lawsuit so quickly seems a bit opportunistic. The company wants to be the first to claim this potential lawsuit.
The judge must also decide whether this is a legitimate class action and whether Fitzgerald Joseph is able to move forward with representation for the suit.
Serious breach of privacy
These images and videos included images of dogs, road signs, and other harmless content; But it also included videos inside parking lots, the owners’ children, and even a video of a man approaching a car naked.
Tesla assured millions of electric vehicle owners that their privacy “was and always will be extremely important to us.”
On its website, it says the cameras it puts in vehicles to assist driving are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy”.
But between 2019 and 2022, groups of company employees privately via an internal messaging system sometimes shared highly private videos and photos recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to Reuters interviews with nine former employees.
The US company states in its online “Customer Privacy Notice” that “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not associated with you or your vehicle.”
However, 7 former employees said – in their statements – that the computer program they use at work can show the location of the recordings, which could potentially reveal the place of residence of one of the car owners.
A former employee also said that some of the videos appeared to have been recorded while the electric cars were parked and turned off.
There is no legal justification
To develop self-driving car technology, Tesla collects a massive amount of data from its global fleet of several million vehicles.
The company requires car owners to give permission to use car touchscreens before Tesla collects their car data. The company’s website states, “Your data belongs to you.”
In its Customer Privacy Notice, the Company explains that if the Customer consents to data sharing; Your vehicle may collect data and make it available to Tesla for analysis; This helps them improve their products and features and diagnose problems faster.
It also states that the data may include “short videos or images,” but is not linked to a customer account or vehicle identification number, and “does not identify you personally.”
Germany’s data privacy lawyer Carlo Peltz said it would be difficult to find a legal justification under European data protection and privacy law for the internal trading of vehicle registrations when it is “unrelated to the provision of a safe or secure vehicle or the functionality of Tesla’s self-driving system.”
Tesla cameras stir controversy
In recent years, Tesla’s car camera system has sparked controversy. Some Chinese government complexes and residential neighborhoods have banned Teslas over concerns about its cameras.
In response, CEO Elon Musk said – in a virtual talk at a Chinese forum held in 2021 -: “If Tesla uses cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will close our doors.”
Elsewhere, regulators have scrutinized Tesla’s system for potential privacy breaches; But privacy issues tend to focus not on the rights of car owners, but on pedestrians who are unaware they may be being photographed by parked cars.
In February, the Dutch data protection authority revealed that it had ended an investigation into possible privacy breaches in relation to “guard mode”, a feature designed to record suspicious activity when the car is parked and alert the owner.
“People who walked next to these vehicles were photographed without knowing it. Tesla owners can go back and look at these pictures,” said Katia Moore, a member of the board of directors of the Dutch authority, according to Reuters.
She added: “If a person parked one of these vehicles in front of someone’s window, they could spy inside and see everything the other person was doing. This is a serious invasion of privacy.”
The Dutch authority decided that it was the vehicle owners who were legally responsible for their vehicle registrations.
She said she decided not to fine the company after Tesla said it had made several changes to its custody status; Including pulses in car headlights to notify pedestrians that they may be being photographed.
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