The Federal Trade Commission warned auto manufacturers on Tuesday that it is closely watching their data collection and sales activities, citing several recent enforcement actions which it suggested could apply to the industry's practice of sharing sensitive car data with advertisers.
FTC blog posts are seen as a mechanism for the agency to informally alert industry to rein in potentially illegal activities.
The cases the agency cited in the post include recent settlements with two firms selling geolocation data to advertisers.
One of those cases, against the data broker Outlogic, centered on FTC allegations that the peddled data could be used to track consumers' visits to sensitive locations such as reproductive health clinics.
A second case cited in the post involved the data broker InMarket Media, which the FTC alleged illegally used sensitive data to organize consumers into advertising audience segments.
FTC blog posts are usually the result of significant internal discussion informed in part by public listening sessions and workshops held by the agency, said John Davisson, director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Tuesday's post is the agency's first public comment on connected cars since 2018 aside from a short release advising consumers to wipe their data from rental cars last year.
It comes at a time when U.S. senators are publicly pressuring the agency to take action against automakers for data privacy violations.
The post then cited the FTC's recent settlement with BetterHelp, a company offering online counseling, which shared customers' email addresses and information gleaned from health questionnaires with third parties who used it for advertising.
The agency also referenced its recent settlement with Rite Aid, which it went after for allegedly using faulty facial recognition technology to identify problem customers.
Data minimization also was a focus of the blog post, which said that the best way for companies to ensure they do not harm consumers by improperly using their data is to not collect it in the first place.
The car data privacy issue has been a focus for consumer advocates in recent years.
Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst at Consumer Reports, said his organization has urged the FTC to investigate how automakers collect and share driver behavior data with insurers and data brokers.
Civil society under increasing threats from 'malicious' state cyber actors, US warns.
Is a reporter covering privacy, disinformation and cybersecurity policy for The Record.
She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop and Reuters.
Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek.
She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Wed, 15 May 2024 19:28:08 +0000