Electric car manufacturer Tesla is currently facing a class-action lawsuit from its customers who claim that their privacy rights were violated by some of the company’s employees. According to the lawsuit, Tesla employees shared and ridiculed private and sensitive images and videos captured by the cameras installed on Tesla vehicles without the consent or knowledge of the customers.
The lawsuit was filed in a US District Court in California after a Reuters report revealed that groups of Tesla employees used an internal messaging system to share highly invasive images from 2019 to 2022. The images included a naked man approaching a Tesla, children, and videos of crashes and road rage. The lawsuit alleges that Tesla employees did not share these images for business use, but for their own amusement and to humiliate those recorded.
Henry Yeh, a San Francisco resident who owns a 2022 Tesla Model Y, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit. He is suing Tesla on behalf of himself and other class members who owned or leased a Tesla since 2019. The lawsuit seeks to compel Tesla to compensate customers for the cost or partial cost of their vehicles, as well as to stop recording, viewing, and sharing images captured by the car cameras and to destroy any personal data obtained in violation of state privacy laws.
Tesla’s vehicles are equipped with an impressive array of cameras that can be helpful in various ways, such as proving who was at fault in an accident and assisting with features like Autopilot and Autopark. However, these cameras can also capture moments that are private or potentially embarrassing, particularly in customers’ garages. While Tesla’s customer privacy notice states that “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle,” the lawsuit alleges that this notice is misleading, as Tesla employees could access highly invasive images for their own amusement.
Tesla has not yet responded to the lawsuit or the allegations. The company has also faced privacy concerns in other countries. Earlier this year, Tesla agreed to modify camera settings on vehicles sold in the European Union after a Dutch privacy regulator stated that the previous settings allowed privacy violations. In the EU, cameras no longer continuously record around a car and remain disabled by default, unless a user turns on recording.
The lawsuit raises serious questions about how Tesla handles and protects its customers’ data and privacy. It also highlights the potential risks and challenges of using cameras and other sensors in connected vehicles, which can collect and transmit large amounts of data. Customers should be aware of what data their vehicles are collecting and how it is being used and shared by the companies they trust. Legal analysts and privacy experts should be consulted to provide additional insight on the lawsuit and its implications.
