Overview
- A peer‑reviewed study released Tuesday tested 21 late‑model vehicles and 30 companion apps and captured Wi‑Fi and isolated cellular traffic to trace who vehicles talk to on the internet.
- Researchers found 19 of the 21 cars contacted at least one third‑party domain and more than half connected with advertising, tracking, or analytics firms such as Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Meta, Snap, and Yahoo.
- Seven companion apps transmitted personally identifiable information—examples include VINs, phone numbers, email addresses, and precise GPS location—to advertising or analytics networks, and pairing an app to a car roughly doubled tracker exposure.
- Automakers were notified of the results and responses varied: Honda ordered its vendor to delete collected location data and updated its app while most other manufacturers defended existing vendor contracts or blamed third‑party services.
- The findings show limited consumer visibility and weak opt‑out options, which raises risks of profiling, resale to data brokers, insurance or lending consequences, and broader harm if large datasets are breached or combined.