CARMAKERS FAIL PRIVACY TEST, GIVE OWNERS LITTLE OR NO CONTROL ON PERSONAL DATA THEY COLLECT

Cars are getting an "F" in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.

The proliferation of sensors in automobiles - from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs.

But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Wednesday in their latest "Privacy Not Included" survey Security standards are also vague, a big concern given automakers' track record of susceptibility to hacking.

"Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I'm really hoping that we can help remedy that because they are truly awful, said Jen Caltrider, the study's research lead. "Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations in them. Cars have cameras that face inward and outward." Unless they opt for a used, pre-digital model, car buyers "just don't have a lot of options," Caltrider said.

Cars scored worst for privacy among more than a dozen product categories - including fitness trackers, reproductive-health apps, smart speakers and other connected home appliances - that Mozilla has studied since 2017.

Not one of the 25 car brands whose privacy notices were reviewed - chosen for their popularity in Europe and North America - met the minimum privacy standards of Mozilla, which promotes open-source, public interest technologies and maintains the Firefox browser. By contrast, 37% of the mental health apps the non-profit reviewed this year did.