It’s absolutely true that connected cars and the wider IoT space has miles to go in terms of security and privacy. Far too many companies treat security as an afterthought, and then we see everything from Jeeps to Barbie dolls being compromised. Those same firms then treat privacy as a winner-take-all game, where they expect the customers to give them maximum access with minimal accountability. And frankly, it pisses us off.
At Automatic, we’ve laid out our security procedures and privacy policies incredibly clearly. No firm is perfect, but I think we’ve done an outstanding job at creating systems that are difficult to penetrate, and in setting precise expectations with our customers about how we’ll use their data. You can read about those here: https://blog.automatic.com/security-at-automatic-how-we-keep... and https://blog.automatic.com/our-privacy-principles-4d2fd93654...
To get back to the article - car manufacturers that hide what they’re doing from consumers should knock it off. I don’t think they’re necessarily being nefarious, I just think they’re being foolish. In this age where consumers are waking up to the risks and rewards of connectivity, obscuring the data you’re collecting and how you’re using it is only going to become more untenable.