Smart Cars Sure Do Have Some Dumb Security Standards

The vehicles of today are equipped withcountless features that previously did not exist, but this also makes themvulnerable in ways that older cars simply are not. Today, we want to explorewhat this growing smart car trend means for the security of vehicles.

Cars Are Just Not Good atMaintaining Privacy and Security

In a recent survey conducted by Mozilla, outof 25 car brands, none of them ranked well with privacy. How is this possible?Let’s discuss their findings in greater detail.

No Brands Met Minimum SecurityStandards

Mozilla found that several brands publishedprivacy policies, but they ultimately failed to meet the security standards setforth by Mozilla. For others, however, it was unclear whether or not the brandupheld these standards, but this ambiguity is a far cry from actuallysucceeding in protecting consumer data.

Vehicles contain a lot of personalinformation, yet Mozilla found that this data was often left unencrypted.Furthermore, many companies outright denied or ignored requests for moreinformation, which isn’t shady at all, right?

All Companies Collect Too MuchData, and Most Distribute It

All of the brands investigated by Mozillacollected more data than necessary for the vehicle to function. This is wild toconsider, and when you think about how much data vehicles might collect, thereare boundless opportunities for that data to be exploited. Considering howmodern vehicles can connect to smartphones and mobile devices for specificfeatures to work, suddenly that data is a bigger deal.

Additionally, 84% of these car companies sharethe data they collect, with 76% selling it. Furthermore, 56% of these companieswill also share this information with government officials upon request, withor without a court order.

Drivers Are Not In Control Of Their Data

Consumers can usually request that their databe deleted, but in the case of these car companies, 92% do not allow drivers todo so. Only one company in Europe held out, likely due to the General DataProtection Regulation, and likely because they would face a steep fine forfailing to do so.

Basically, Cars Don’t Respect Your Privacy (But We Do)

If you are going to purchase new technologyfor your business, you’ll want to take full advantage of privacy and securitysolutions to ensure you’re meeting the standards your clients expect. We canhelp you out with that. To learn more, call us today at (954) 628-3770.

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