Spying on privacy Research shows that new cars share your information
A review of 21 new cars shows that most of them provide the information of drivers to advertising and data analysis companies through dedicated applications or internal systems.
A review of 21 new cars shows that most of them provide the information of drivers to advertising and data analysis companies through dedicated applications or internal systems.
Arjan's ambassador, Farkhunde Rafai: Today's cars, by connecting to the Internet and using dedicated applications, collect a lot of information from drivers; But this data is not always limited to the automobile company. A new research has shown that information such as vehicle identification number and users' location may also be transferred to third parties.
According to Engjet, Northeastern University researchers, by examining the internet traffic of 21 new cars and 30 car manufacturers' applications, identified the transfer of driver information to advertising and data analysis companies. This review was conducted between October 2024 and August 2025 using test vehicles from Consumer Reports.
Out of 21 cars, 19 had connected with at least one third company through Wi-Fi. Also, seven applications had sent information such as vehicle identification number, email address and exact location of users to advertising and data analysis companies.
Four of the seven apps belonged to General Motors: myCadillac, myChevrolet, myBuick and myGMC. The apps sent vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, to 10 companies, including Microsoft and Adobe. The HondaLink application also provided data analysis company Amplitude with car identification information and users' location.
Why is it important to transfer car information?
The vehicle identification number or VIN is a unique identifier that, unlike the advertising ID of the phone, cannot be easily changed or reset. Combining this number with an email address can help advertising companies link the car owner's activities across different apps and websites.
According to Consumer Reports, 10 of the 21 cars tested were not associated with any advertising or tracking domains alone; But their dedicated applications created a different situation. For example, the Buick Envista and Nissan Aria apps were linked to 23 and 25 advertising and tracking companies, respectively. In total, 28 of the 30 apps surveyed had a relationship with at least one advertising or data analytics company.
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The researchers shared their findings with 17 automakers and received responses from 14 companies. All these companies stated that the data transfer was done according to their contracts with the service providers. Some also put the onus on car owners to accept third-party terms of service, including pre-installed software.
This research was published while the US Federal Trade Commission imposed restrictions against General Motors in January 2026. The company is barred from selling driver information to consumer credit reporting companies for five years and must obtain users' express consent before collecting or sharing connected car data. However, the experiment of the researchers was done before the issuance of this order and they did not make any claim about its violation.
Honda was the only automaker to announce a definite change. The company asked Amplitude to remove users' location data and changed the HondaLink app to no longer send this data. David Chaffens, a professor at Northeastern University and one of the authors of the study, believes that regulatory bodies should intervene to address this situation.