US driver data privacy laws aren't strict enough for EU

In October the Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manfuacturers informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that they were working together on a set of privacy protection guidelines for drivers. The privacy concerns the data collected by modern automobiles, like vehicle location, biometrics or infotainment usage, that automakers use to "enable a better overall driving experience." Even though the information is anonymized, the fear is that – without any protections – using it can lead to messy interactions with business aims and cloud how information will be exchanged as vehicle-to-vehicle technology increases.

This month, the two groups issued a 13-page paper called "Consumer Privacy Protection Principles" laying out a framework for collecting and safeguarding data, saying that it "goes beyond similar principles in other industry sectors," and, "Vigilance over the privacy of our customers and the security of vehicle systems is an imperative." According to a German attorney, however, the protections use vague language that wouldn't satisfy current European regulations. At issue are phrases like "reasonable business purposes" to describe when collecting data is acceptable, and the fact that just using the vehicle is de facto consent to data collection.

That latter point is also a problem for Senator Edward Markey, who believes drivers should not just be made aware of their personal information being stored but should be able to opt-out of having it stored at all.