Groundbreaking New Tool Unveils Secrets Behind The Automotive Industry’s Data Collection

Privacy4Cars, a privacy-tech firm, has launched a first-of-its-kind tool called Vehicle Privacy Report™ which will enable consumers to view key privacy facts about a vehicle by looking up its VIN. The report discloses personal information collected, shared, and sold by manufacturers, with the aim of improving transparency for buyers and auto businesses. The tool is officially available for free, as of today, at vehicleprivacyreport.com.

Everyone knows today’s cars are just computers with wheels. The backup experienced in new car production over the last several years, due in large part to a lack of silicon for chips, is proof of how deeply embedded tech already is. As the years go on consumers can be confident digital technologies will only become more prominent part of their transportation experiences. This constant connection to the internet also means more potential for surveillance.

Today, Privacy4Cars, a privacy-tech company dedicated to addressing privacy challenges associated with vehicle data now and into the future, has launch of a groundbreaking new tool to help consumers called Vehicle Privacy Report™. The team hopes this tool will become the modern version of CarFax but focused on data collection and sharing rather than accident history. The innovative tool empowers consumers to quickly access key privacy facts about a vehicle, including the personal information collected, shared, and sold by the manufacturer, by simply entering a vehicle’s VIN.

Consumers Deserve Transparency

Andrea Amico, Privacy4Cars Founder and CEO, highlighted that consumers often agree to have their personal information collected, shared, and sold when purchasing a vehicle without their knowledge. From enabling stalkers and abusers to leading criminal investigations digital vehicle forensics represents a major threat to consumers if proper safeguards are not in place. Understanding what vehicle owners, renters, and passengers are agreeing to is often a daunting task due to the complexity of legal documents. The Vehicle Privacy Report™ aims to address this massive transparency challenge and enable consumers to factor privacy into their purchasing decisions more easily.

During its research, Privacy4Cars discovered that general consumers would be required to spend an average of two and a half hours reading through all the necessary materials to understand the privacy policies and terms of the average automaker. This is significantly longer than most software agreements consumers have to read for apps on their phones.

Moreover, when Privacy4Cars sent consumers to mystery shop at over 150 dealerships between 2020-2023, they found that less than five percent of salespeople accurately represented that cars collect personal information. Worse, they rarely understood or communicated that manufacturers have the right to share and sell this data. The Vehicle Privacy Report™ tool was developed as a response to these concerning findings.

Each Vehicle Privacy Report™ includes two essential components: the Vehicle Privacy Label™, a set of ten standardized, clickable icons summarizing the data collection, sharing, and selling practices of vehicle manufacturers according to their public documents, and the Vehicle Privacy History™, which lists known actions businesses have taken to protect their customers’ privacy.

Generating a Vehicle Privacy Report™ is easy and free. Users can visit vehicleprivacyreport.com, input a vehicle’s VIN in the search bar, and obtain a report within seconds outlining the personal information the manufacturer discloses it collects, including identifiers, biometric data, geolocation, data from synched phones, and user profiles. Think of it like the CarFax for vehicle data.

The report also details manufacturers’ disclosures on whom they share and/or sell that information to service providers, insurance companies, government agencies, data brokers, and other affiliates. Additionally, the report provides a log of the recorded deletion of personal information on the vehicle and cites the manufacturer’s published materials, the time it would take a general consumer to read through all related privacy policies and terms, and the education level required to proficiently read those documents.

For auto dealers, the Vehicle Privacy Report™ tool can be embedded into their sales sites to help fairly communicate the data practices of auto companies for each specific vehicle on their lot. “Privacy Care” dealerships will be able to automatically populate VIN-specific badges and information on their websites’ Vehicle Detail Pages, offering a new avenue to increase VDP engagement, build consumer trust, and limit the risk of Unfair and Deceptive Practices accusations.

Get Your Free Report Today

“Privacy is the new safety,” stated Amico. “Our hope is that Privacy4Cars’ Vehicle Privacy Report™ will make privacy tangible and valuable for consumers, through transparent disclosures preventing market distortions and incentivizing companies to improve their practices and distinguish themselves from the competition when they build, sell, buy, rent, loan, finance, and insure vehicles. We’re confident that our new Vehicle Privacy Report™ is a move in the right direction for the rapidly digitizing auto industry.”

Privacy4Cars’ Vehicle Privacy Report™ tool is officially live as of 8:00 am Eastern May 2nd, 2023. Visit vehicleprivacyreport.com to be one of the first to use this groundbreaking new tool.