Tesla workers shared ‘intimate’ car camera images, ex-employees allege(theguardian.com)
theguardian.com
Tesla workers shared ‘intimate’ car camera images, ex-employees allege
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/apr/07/tesla-intimate-car-camera-images-shared
18 comments
They don't and that is a huge issue that EU governments should be addressing but they aren't.
I can't legal place a camera on my house if any public road or sidewalk is visible as it violates privacy laws. I also need to probably signage if I have cameras.
Dashcams are considered a gray area as generally they delete old footage and they stay on the device but such footage can not be used in court unless it is a very serious case.
Tesla just ignores this and sends data to a DC in the Netherlands and no one knows what happens with the data. From what I know camera recordings when parked are only stored locally but from this it may be possible for Tesla to pull them?
I can't legal place a camera on my house if any public road or sidewalk is visible as it violates privacy laws. I also need to probably signage if I have cameras.
Dashcams are considered a gray area as generally they delete old footage and they stay on the device but such footage can not be used in court unless it is a very serious case.
Tesla just ignores this and sends data to a DC in the Netherlands and no one knows what happens with the data. From what I know camera recordings when parked are only stored locally but from this it may be possible for Tesla to pull them?
Guess that's what happens when you put "telemetry" (in the form of cameras) on cars.
Now do the microphones.
I like bashing Tesla as much as anyone else, but this isn’t a Tesla-ism.
This is a direct and predictable result of placing cameras where people are, and then giving employees access to that footage. The solution is to encrypt all footage such that it is only accessible to the camera owners. The flaw is that the company has access to that footage at all - as has been found time and time again no amount of “controls” stops people sharing videos with each other, the only solution is for it to be impossible for any person at the company to ever access any uploaded footage, for any reason, ever.
This is a direct and predictable result of placing cameras where people are, and then giving employees access to that footage. The solution is to encrypt all footage such that it is only accessible to the camera owners. The flaw is that the company has access to that footage at all - as has been found time and time again no amount of “controls” stops people sharing videos with each other, the only solution is for it to be impossible for any person at the company to ever access any uploaded footage, for any reason, ever.
It's a Tesla-ism because they're collecting this data to train their ML models on to try to get self-driving to work. If they couldn't use the data for their own purposes they probably wouldn't bother keeping it.
From the article:
> In its customer privacy notice, Tesla explains that if a customer agrees to share data, “your vehicle may collect the data and make it available to Tesla for analysis. This analysis helps Tesla improve its products, features, and diagnose problems quicker.” It also states that the data may include “short video clips or images”, but is not linked to a customer’s account or vehicle identification number, “and does not identify you personally”.
So it sounds like this was an opt-in data sharing option, but likely of the kind that everyone just clicks through without reading, consent but not informed consent. Unfortunately that isn't a Tesla-specific problem either, but it does seem that the reason they're not taking measures like encrypting camera data as you describe is that it was intentional that the company have access to this data - of course from there it's practically inevitable that bored employees would abuse it like this.
> In its customer privacy notice, Tesla explains that if a customer agrees to share data, “your vehicle may collect the data and make it available to Tesla for analysis. This analysis helps Tesla improve its products, features, and diagnose problems quicker.” It also states that the data may include “short video clips or images”, but is not linked to a customer’s account or vehicle identification number, “and does not identify you personally”.
So it sounds like this was an opt-in data sharing option, but likely of the kind that everyone just clicks through without reading, consent but not informed consent. Unfortunately that isn't a Tesla-specific problem either, but it does seem that the reason they're not taking measures like encrypting camera data as you describe is that it was intentional that the company have access to this data - of course from there it's practically inevitable that bored employees would abuse it like this.
I bet it makes features of the car that you've paid for not work if the customer does actually opt-out.
Like every other tech company on the planet. Its a huge problem that society can't even begin to study because all of it is done in secret. It's also kept secret because the damage it would do to tech companies and the government would be huge
Why is camera footage from a purchased car sent to a car manufacturer at all is the bigger question. Can people opt-out?
I guess it's for the human supervised training of their AI
...or, ahem, for the supervised-human training of their AI
Because, in this case, it was opt-in. People chose to allow this as part of furthering Tesla's (poor) self-driving systems.
Pics or it didn't happen.
Recently there was a change to how Tesla records surroundings.
But that was very recent change!
Sounds like every Tesla on the street is to be considered an accessory to privacy violation and subject to Tesla employee exploitation.