Your automotive could also be keeping tabs in your “sex drive.”
Automobile makers Nissan and Kia can collect data on their drivers’ “sexual activity” and “sex lives” — and will sell the information to third-party advertisers, based on a shocking study by a web privacy watchdog.
The creepy collection of non-public information by the 2 auto corporations earned them failing grades from The Mozilla Foundation, maker of the Firefox web browser, which ran privacy checks on 25 automotive brands.
The muse said most automotive corporations can comb through quite a lot of sources to glean personal information about drivers after they pair their smartphones with a vehicle’s connected services.
“This invasive harvesting of knowledge is collected via an internet of sensors, microphones, cameras and the phones, apps, and connected services you utilize in your vehicle,” based on Mozilla Foundation.
The automotive firms can then take that data and sell it to or share it with vendors, insurance firms and others, based on watchdog.
![Nissan collects customers' personal data about their](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000030286204.jpg?w=1024)
“There’s a whole lot of ambiguity around how automotive corporations collect these data points, and that’s the problem,” Kevin Zawacki, a spokesperson for Mozilla Foundation, told The Post.
“It’s nearly unimaginable for consumers to essentially understand how all their data is collected.”
Zawacki said that Mozilla Foundation reached out to Nissan for specifics on the way it collects data. Nissan didn’t respond, based on Zawacki.
![Kia, the Korean automaker, acknowledges that it intercepts information about people's](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000030285663.jpg?w=1024)
Of the 25 automotive brands that were reviewed, Nissan’s privacy policy “might be essentially the most mind boggling creepy, scary, sad, tousled privacy policy now we have ever read,” based on Mozilla Foundation.
“Here’s why: They arrive right out and say they’ll collect and share your sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic information and other sensitive personal information for targeted marketing purposes,” the inspiration wrote.
On Nissan’s official web page outlining its privacy policy, the Japan-based company said that it collects drivers’ “sensitive personal information, including driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information.”
The corporate said that its “sources for collection” include “direct contact with users and Nissan employees.”
Zawacki told The Post that data collection via “direct contact with users and Nissan employees” just “raises more questions than answers.”
Nissan said that the goal of the data collection is “to offer connected vehicle services which may utilize or depend on geolocation data, facilitate more targeted marketing, in addition to for internal reporting and analytics purposes, and for other purposes within the strange course of employment or the supply of other services based on the terms that govern those programs.”
![The privacy watchdog Mozilla Foundation ranked Kia among the worst offenders when it comes to safeguarding user data.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000030286758.jpg?w=1024)
The Post has sought comment from Nissan.
Kia, the Korean auto giant, also acknowledged on its site that it collects “sensitive personal information” equivalent to “racial or ethnic origin,” “religious or philosophical beliefs,” “health, sex life or sexual orientation information,” and “genetic data.”
In a press release to The Post, a Kia spokesperson said: “While we may collect certain varieties of personal information, including ‘sensitive personal information’ as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), not every type of non-public or sensitive personal information are collected by us — as stated in our privacy policy.”
“Whether certain information is collected by us is determined by the context wherein a consumer interacts with us,” the Kia spokesperson said.
“To make clear, Kia doesn’t and has never collected “sex life or sexual orientation” information from vehicles or consumers within the context of providing the Kia Connect Services.”
![A spokesperson for Stellantis, the parent company of the Chrysler brand, pushed back on the Mozilla Foundation report.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000013628231.jpg?w=1024)
Mozilla Foundation also flagged other automotive corporations equivalent to Chrysler, Chevrolet, Toyota, Audi, Jeep, and Honda for “overtly collecting deeply personal information from the moment they get right into a automotive.”
A spokesperson for Chrysler’s parent company, Stellantis, told The Post: “Multiple claims on this (Mozilla Foundation) document are incorrect as they relate to Stellantis Brands.”
“We rigorously and diligently consider data privacy and act accordingly,” the spokesperson said.
“Customers with questions may call our customer care center.”
Mozilla Foundation accused Chrysler of collecting user data including “immigration status, race, facial features, genetic information using biometrics.”
“That may be a false statement,” the Stellantis spokesperson told The Post.
A spokesperson for GM said the corporate “takes data privacy very seriously and (is) committed to safeguarding personal information.”
“For each GM vehicle, before any connected vehicle services are activated and before any data is ever collected, the vehicle owner must accept the OnStar Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement. These detail our data practices and can be found online for consumers to review before they even walk right into a dealership.”
The Post has sought comment from the automakers dinged by Mozilla.