Does your car know your information? Understanding the privacy and security challenges

Cars collect a lot of information—where you've been, how fast you've driven, where you've shopped, and so on. Modern driver monitoring systems go far beyond that. Today's vehicles monitor the driver's own behavior. For example, some cars can tell when a driver takes their hands off the steering wheel. Cars with self-driving features have interior cameras that can detect when a driver takes their eyes off the road. Some of this data may be collected and used by insurance companies.

This raises the question. What exactly does your car know about you?

The amount of data generated by cars is staggering. A typical car may have more than 200 sensors generating 4TB of data (https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-car-in-the-age-of-connectivity-enabling-car-to-cloud-connectivity). These sensors include diagnostic data that monitors engine performance, as well as perception systems that sense if the car is in a blind spot. Connected infotainment systems can store information about the stores you have visited, the routes you have driven, and the people you have called.

Cars collect information about the driver and passengers through driver monitoring systems (DMS). They were developed to reduce traffic accidents caused by distracted or drowsy driving. Regulators are increasingly requiring some features of driver monitoring systems for new cars. Components of the system include:

• Driver-facing camera to monitor driver attention and fatigue

  
  

• A heart rate monitor mounted on the steering wheel, similar to those found on gym machines, can be used to determine fatigue levels through a complex algorithm.

  
  

• Pressure sensors and infrared devices on the seats can detect the number of people in the car. These systems can be used to remind parents not to forget their children in the back seat.

  
  

• Fingerprint sensor can be used to prevent unauthorized use

The tools and techniques used in DMS systems are fascinating, and there are many existing and emerging sensors and algorithms in this space. If you want to dive deeper into the current state of these technologies, check out this article from IEEE Xplore: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9773999.

IEEE senior member Euclides Chuma pointed out that vehicle monitoring systems even monitor driver behavior, raising privacy and security issues, especially if car data could be used by insurance companies.

Cameras could be used to identify your body type, he said. Heart rate monitoring could provide clues to your physical health and stress levels. Your music preferences might reflect your mood. Identifying the number of people in a car could also indicate your sociability level.

If this information were provided, it would be useful to marketers and advertisers, or could encourage people to spend.

“This raises ethical concerns about the extent to which technology can be used to reap economic benefits at the expense of individual well-being,” Chuma said.

IEEE member Ralf Ma pointed out that ensuring the collection of personal data requires cooperation from policymakers, automakers and consumers, especially the need to clarify the limits of data use.

“Policymakers need to determine which data will be used by automakers, which data cannot be used and can only be stored locally, and which data must be confirmed by consumers before it can be used,” Ma said. “There must be clear restrictions on the use of all data types.”

Experts point out that there is a lot of overlap between the types of information collected by cars and that collected by smartphones, and like smartphones, drivers generally consent to the data being collected.

“Our cars can collect our personal driving data, where we’ve been, and image data while driving,” said IEEE member Bilin Aksun Guvenc. “Any personally identifiable information, such as name and address, requires the driver’s consent. Even with consent, this information should not be made public.”