now to a CBS News Detroit followup recent reports find many automakers are tracking and sharing what you are doing behind the wheel tonight we look at how and if you can protect your privacy CBS News Detroit's Kelly Bon has the story sounds like it's not a simple answer Kelly not simple at all because you know when you're buying your car most of us don't have the luxury of worrying about privacy first we're thinking about what can we afford what's safe what fits our needs and even what is availa
ble but there are a few things we can do to be more informed about data privacy in your vehicle if you're in the market for a new car you could consider holding off on getting all of those connected extras delete the app or don't download the app um if you buy a new car and the dealer tries to pressure you to download the app or sign up for the connected Services don't do that um you can do that at any time later so you'll be able to go home and do your research before you sign up for that Jen C
Ridder is the program director at the Mozilla foundation's privacy not included she says for that car you already have in your driveway it can be harder to limit what data it can collect about you there's no option when you get your car to say I only want data collection done for safety reasons and any other data that you could collect please don't collect please don't monetize delete it that's usually not an option with the cars that we reviewed some car companies do allow consumers to adjust
connectivity settings drivers can read about how in their car's privacy policy but opting out of all data sharing isn't always possible a lot of lot of times you can't if you try and disable some of the like cellular data um sharing or Wi-Fi data sharing it might void your warranty C writer says drivers could try requesting their data be deleted but that all depends on the type of car and your State's privacy laws that's why cult writer says strong consumer Federal privacy laws are needed the fa
ct that our cars no longer mean Independence and freedom and privacy you know you can't sing at the top of the lungs anymore without somebody watching you or have that private conversation with your child child or make out in the back seat or drive somewhere as a teenager knowing that you're not being tracked um I don't think that that's good for us as a society um I think that yes maybe in some ways we're safer but in a lot of ways we're also doing our ourselves harm and she says all of the dat
a collection we're seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg there's actually companies out there that are working on technology to use those in camera cars to to to to try and learn our emotions um under the guise of we want to build an empathetic car that can know how you're reacting to you know uh this song or driving by this building or things like that that can tell your mood and know your emotions all right so if you're hearing all this and wondering what you could do you're a good first s
tep could be just reading through your car's privacy policy but you got to know it's not just your car your radio app GPS OnStar Services they all have their own privacy and data collection policies and all the new technology is far outpacing in all the Privacy Law and as we mentioned there is no federal privacy data law now some states have passed comprehensive privacy legislation but Michigan not one of them though Michigan does have more narrow consumer privacy laws in effect I'm still stuck
on they want to build a more empathetic car to know how we feel about songs where is this all headed that's the question they they Market it as something that can alert you if you're drowsy can alert you if you know your eyes are veering off the road can also track what's making you happy and sad and there's benefit to it but tell you when you might need to make a purchase or something I imagine right and track what's what's what you're use what's you're enjoying using and then they can give you
more of that that's what they're selling it as but of course with everything all right there's concerns well knowledge is power so good to know about it now we'll keep an eye on it thanks Kelly
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