Your car may be spying on you — and selling your secrets, Sen. Charles Schumer warned Sunday.
The New York Democrat said GPS devices and other auto technologies are tracking drivers — often without their knowledge — and creating “reams of data” that are being peddled to “third-party companies.”
He is demanding federal regulations to restrict auto-makers and others from selling the information without a driver’s OK.
“If your car has a GPS, it’s tracking your every movement,” Schumer said at a news conference outside a Mercedes-Benz dealership on the West Side. “It knows your favorite places to visit. It knows where you like to eat, where you shop, where you go on vacation, if you go to the doctor and a lot of other things.
“That creates a trove of information about you that can easily be sold to marketers and companies looking to target someone like you,” Schumer said.
He called on the Federal Trade Commission and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to establish “clear, robust guidelines” on what data can be collected and “provide clear opt-out opportunities for drivers.”
His office said the issue applies to any car with built-in “smart” technology, including Wi-Fi, OnStar safety systems and dashboard apps, or even those with added GPS devices.
Many new cars also contain black boxes, or “event data recorders,” which will become mandatory in September. They collect data on direction, speed, braking and number of passengers.
Schumer cited a recent study by the Government Accountability Office that found 90 percent of car and device makers share the tracking data they collect.
“They know where every single person went and have a whole ream of data on where they went and what they did, without the driver’s knowledge,” he said.
“There ought to be some rules about who can use this information and how.”
Sens. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced a bill last month to ensure car owners control the data collected by black boxes.
But Schumer’s fix could be accomplished administratively without congressional action.
Neither the FTC nor NHTSA responded to requests for comment.