Vehicle Data Privacy: What Your Car Knows About You and How to Protect It

When you drive a modern car, you’re not just operating a machine—you’re sharing your life with it. Vehicle data privacy, the right to control what information your car collects and shares about you. Also known as automotive telemetry privacy, it’s becoming one of the most overlooked risks in today’s connected vehicles. Your car tracks where you go, how fast you drive, when you brake, even what songs you listen to. Some systems record your voice commands, monitor your eye movements, and store your home address for navigation. This isn’t science fiction—it’s standard in cars built after 2015.

Companies like GM, Ford, and Tesla collect this data to improve safety, optimize performance, and even sell insights to third parties. Driver monitoring systems, cameras and sensors that detect drowsiness or distraction, are now common in new models. Connected car privacy, how your vehicle communicates with cloud servers and apps means your location history can be stored indefinitely. And while manufacturers claim they anonymize this data, breaches happen. Hackers have already cracked vehicle networks to track cars remotely, disable brakes, or steal personal info.

You don’t need to ditch your car to protect yourself. Start by checking your owner’s manual for data-sharing settings—many cars let you turn off telematics, disable location tracking, or delete stored routes. Disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when not in use. Review privacy policies before buying a new car; some brands are far more transparent than others. And if you’ve ever used a dealer’s app or connected your phone to the infotainment system, you’ve likely given up more data than you realize.

What you’ll find below are real guides that connect directly to this issue. From how driver monitoring systems work to how manufacturers handle your data under CCPA, a U.S. law that gives California residents control over their personal information, these posts break down the hidden trade-offs in modern driving. You’ll learn how to read your car’s privacy settings, understand recall notices tied to data vulnerabilities, and spot when your vehicle is collecting more than it should. This isn’t about fear—it’s about awareness. Your car knows more about you than your phone does. It’s time to ask why—and what you can do about it.