“Big Brother” Tesla’s is watching
Tesla is accused of violating privacy concerns linked with their car’s surveillance cameras.
In a lawsuit filed by vzbv (The Federation of German Consumer Organizations) in Berlin last July accuses Tesla misled consumers by not informing them by advertising their cars owners may be violating privacy data protection laws if the “sentry” mode feature which activates surveillance cameras in their cars was used in public areas to capture images and video of passers-by without their knowledge. Berlin’s data protection agency said the person driving the car would be responsible for turning off the cameras in public spaces or risk prosecution. Furthermore responsibility would extend to the carmaker if those images were transmitted to and stored by Tesla.
Then earlier this year Tesla assured the public their privacy was being upheld among rumors their electric car owner’s camera footage was shared among its employees in group chats from 2019 – 2022. Tesla tells its customers their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us”. Leaves us to question, “But in which way?”.