Privacy Risks of Electric Vehicles

Your electric vehicle knows more about you than almost any other device you own. It tracks where you drive, how you drive, who you call, and — in some cases — even records video inside the cabin. In May 2026, California fined GM $12.75 million in the largest-ever CCPA penalty after the automaker secretly sold precise GPS and driving data from hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Here's what EV owners need to know about their driving privacy.

What Data Does Your EV Collect?

Modern electric vehicles are rolling data collection platforms. Depending on the make and model, your EV may be recording:

• Location data: GPS coordinates, complete trip history, frequently visited locations, and real-time position
• Driving behavior: Acceleration patterns, braking habits, speed, cornering, and lane changes
• Cabin recordings: Interior camera footage (Tesla's cabin-facing camera has recorded drivers and passengers)
• External recordings: Dashcam and sentry mode footage of your surroundings
• Synced personal data: Phone contacts, call logs, text messages, and calendar entries from connected phones
• Battery and charging data: Charging times, locations, energy consumption, and session history
• Infotainment usage: Music, navigation searches, voice commands, and browsing history

Experts project that EV data volumes will increase nearly sevenfold by 2030, reaching approximately 5 exabytes.

How Your Driving Data Gets Sold

The GM/OnStar scandal revealed the full scope of how automakers monetize driving data. Between 2020 and 2024, GM secretly sold precise GPS coordinates, braking habits, and acceleration data from hundreds of thousands of drivers to data brokers Verisk Analytics and LexisNexis. These brokers built algorithmic "driving scores" that were sold directly to insurance companies to set premiums — meaning your own car's data was being used to raise your insurance rates.

GM earned roughly $20 million from these data sales while its privacy policy falsely stated it did not sell driving data. The FTC has since banned the practice for GM and OnStar for five years.

Tesla: A Privacy Case Study

Tesla vehicles illustrate the extreme end of EV data collection:

• Cabin cameras: Tesla employees were caught sharing private cabin camera footage from owners' garages, including intimate moments and images of children
• Sentry Mode: The Dutch Data Protection Commission found Tesla's Sentry Mode recorded all passersby — not just threats — and issued a reprimand forcing Tesla to change defaults so recording only triggers on physical contact
• Always-on connectivity: Tesla vehicles maintain constant data connections, transmitting telemetry back to Tesla's servers

The ACLU called the Tesla camera scandal "the latest lesson in the dangers of letting companies record you."

EV Charging Station Privacy Risks

The privacy risks don't stop when you park. Public EV charging stations collect their own data, including:

• Session timestamps and duration
• Precise location (which reveals your daily routine)
• Payment card details and account information
• RFID card numbers
• Energy consumption patterns

This data functions as precise location tracking — someone with access to your charging history can predict your daily schedule with surprising accuracy. Cyberattacks on charging infrastructure have more than doubled since 2023, and the Department of Energy has flagged EV charging as a major cybersecurity concern.

How to Protect Your Privacy as an EV Owner

1. Review data-sharing settings: Dig into your vehicle's connected services app (OnStar, FordPass, Tesla app, etc.) and disable any data sharing that isn't strictly necessary. Opt out of "data improvement" and analytics programs.
2. Disable cabin cameras: If your vehicle has interior cameras, turn them off when not needed for safety features.
3. Don't sync your phone: Avoid connecting your phone's contacts, calendar, and messages to the infotainment system. If you must, use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay rather than the vehicle's native system.
4. Use privacy-focused payment at chargers: Pay with prepaid cards or use RFID cards not linked to personal accounts when charging at public stations.
5. Secure your home charger: Enable PIN codes and encryption on home charging units. Keep firmware updated.
6. Factory reset before selling: Always perform a complete factory reset of the infotainment system and disconnect all accounts before selling or returning a vehicle. Previous owners have found years of personal data left on used cars.
7. Exercise your privacy rights: File CCPA or state privacy law requests to see what data your automaker has collected and request deletion.

The Bigger Picture

Electric vehicles represent the next frontier of personal data collection. The data your car generates about your movements, habits, and behavior is extraordinarily valuable to insurers, advertisers, and data brokers — and automakers have proven willing to sell it without meaningful disclosure.

Protecting your privacy as an EV owner requires both in-vehicle vigilance and broader data hygiene. While you work to limit what your car shares, services like PrivacyOn can help ensure the personal data that data brokers have already collected about you doesn't compound the problem. Between vehicle telemetry, charging data, and traditional data broker profiles, your movements and personal details are more exposed than ever — making proactive privacy protection essential.