Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Privacy Invasion Claims: Automakers Allowed to Collect and Store Texts, Call Logs from Connected Phones

US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upholds dismissal of class-action lawsuits against Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, and Volkswagen, arguing no violation of Washington State Privacy Act as the data is not transmitted and exists potentially for law enforcement retrieval, not actual privacy invasion.

• The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the dismissal of class-action lawsuits against five major automakers—Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, and Volkswagen—ruling that they did not violate the Washington State Privacy Act. The lawsuits claimed the companies' infotainment systems violated privacy by storing text messages and call logs from connected phones, which could potentially be retrieved by law enforcement.
• The court's decision was based on the fact that the data stored in these systems was never actually transmitted to law enforcement, Ford, or anyone else. There was no allegation that the automakers directly accessed this stored data, and the concern rested solely on the potential for data retrieval by law enforcement.
• A contributing factor to the ruling was that the plaintiffs could not demonstrate actual injury, which is a requirement for a claim under the Washington Privacy Act. The judges ruled that a simple violation of the act was not sufficient to meet this requirement.
• Despite the ruling, privacy concerns persist, particularly related to the potential retrieval of stored data from infotainment systems by law enforcement. Berla, a company that sells specialized data-retrieval products to law enforcement, has stated that data deleted from a device often remains in a car's unallocated space, where it can be recovered.
• There are continued calls for enhanced user data protection in the automotive industry. Reports have criticized modern cars for being 'privacy nightmares', citing that companies collect a wide range of data from vehicle speed and music preferences to user location.

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