And based on a read of Ford's
Privacy Notice, their
Connected Vehicle Privacy Notice, their
California Privacy Disclosures (probably the best place to read privacy information, regardless of where you live), their
FordPass app Privacy Policy, and other privacy and security documentation we reviewed, it seems we were correct to be skeptical. Ford does not appear to us to be so great a respecting and protecting their users personal information and car data.
Let's start with the massive amount of personal information, vehicle and driving information, location information, inferences about you, and other data they say they can collect on your in their privacy policies. Of course they collect things like your name, email, phone number. That's to be expected. They also collect things like your age, gender, ethnicity, driver's license number, your purchase history and tendencies, who your mobile network provider is, lots of location data on your vehicle and your mobile device, voice commands and "other utterances captured when the vehicle’s voice recognition system is in “active listen” state", and more. They use all the to create inferences about you to guess more about your "likely preferences and other characteristics." Yuck.
But that's just the data they say they can collect on you. Then there is the data they say they can collect on your car (f you have a car with connected services or technology, of course). This vehicle data can include all manner of things like, your tire pressure, odometer reading, fuel level, your vehicle's precise location, what traffic signs you've passed, whether the roads are wet, what the weather is, vehicle driving data like speed, seat belt usage, braking, steering, how many passengers, voice commands and other "utterances", "Information about what is listened to in the vehicle (such as radio presets, volume, channels, media sources, title, artist, and genre)," and what vehicle features you use. Remember, all this connected vehicle data can be associated with your cars VIN (Vehicle Identification Number, a unique iD) and that VIN can pretty easily be associated with you as well as being something fairly easy for bad actors to find out.
Ford knows so much about you...and your passengers. Oh yeah, on that passengers note. There's this line in Ford's privacy notice you're expected to follow: "you must inform others who drive the vehicle, and passengers who connect their mobile devices to the vehicle, about the information in this Notice, including the Connected Vehicle Privacy section..." So yeah, make sure you tell all your friends and family all the details on this before they connect their phone to your car to play that cool new playlist they put together for your road trip to Las Vegas! Don't worry, when they give you grief about being a total privacy nerd, tell them privacy nerds rock! (We should know ;-).
And then let's look at the many, many places they say the can share, and perhaps even sell, the information they collect on you. First there's the vast "Ford Motor Company family of companies and affiliates". Ford Motor Company is a huge global corporation, so that is potentially a lot of places it can share your data. They also say they can share your personal information with dealers (there are lots of those around for sure), social media platforms, advertising companies, joint marketing partners, SIRIUS XM radio service, law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and other government agencies. So yeah, once Ford has your personal information, it's going to be shared all over the place. Now is a good time to remind folks that every time your information is shared, you have to trust that new place to do a good job securing, protecting, and respecting it. Good luck with that.
So, Ford collects a ton of information from you, from you car, from your mobile device if you install the FordPass app, from the connected services you use while in your car, and from other sources like public information, business partners, and data brokers/data analytics firms. Uhg. What does Ford say they can then do with all this personal and vehicle information? Well, a huge one is trying to sell you stuff. Advertising, marketing, joint marketing, promotions, all feature heavily in Ford's privacy policies. So count on seeing ads for locations you visit in your car, from your local car dealers, from SIRIUS XM, and from tons and tons of other sources based on where you drive, how you drive, what features or your car you use, what radio stations you listen to, and so much more. Have we mentioned yet that cars are a privacy nightmare. Ford included.
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