The analysis follows previous reporting on the amount of data modern cars can collect and share-with estimates saying cars can produce 25 gigabytes of data per hour.įour Toyota models were in our pick of the most popular US vehicles in recent years: the Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, and Toyota Highlander.
Using industry sales data, WIRED ran 10 of the most popular cars in the US through the privacy tool to see just how much information they can collect. Much like Apple and Google’s privacy labels for apps-which show how Facebook might use your camera, or how Uber might use your location data-the tool indicates what vehicle manufacturers can know. In May, US-based automotive firm Privacy4Cars released a new tool, dubbed the Vehicle Privacy Report, that reveals how much information on your car can be hoovered up. Some of this data is sold by the murky data-broker industry. Cars can track where you’re traveling to and from, record every press on the accelerator as well as your seatbelt settings, and gather biometric information about you. Over the past decade, vehicles have become increasingly connected and their ability to record data about us has shot up.
