A group of Tesla employees have been busted sharing private images and video from customer’s internal and external cameras in a massive breach of privacy, according to Reuters.
New Tesla vehicles are equipped with a number of external and internal cameras used to record security incidents to an internal memory card, along with being used as a dash camera.
These cameras are also used for the car’s Autopilot system.
According to Reuters, between 2019 and 2022 a group of Tesla employees downloaded and shared images and video from customer’s cars without the customer’s knowledge.
Some of the downloaded images and video shared included a naked male walking to their vehicle, other videos included crashes and road-rage incidents that customers didn’t give permission to be shared.
In 2021, video of a crash was shared, which showed a Tesla vehicle traveling at an alarming speed within a residential zone. The footage, as recounted by a former employee, illustrated the tragic moment when the car collided with a young cyclist.
As a result of the impact, the child was violently thrown in one direction, while the bicycle was flung in another. The disturbing video circulated extensively throughout Tesla’s San Mateo, California office. According to the ex-employee, it spread “like wildfire” via private one-on-one chats.
Seven employees told Reuters that a program the company used could pinpoint GPS coordinates from footage, which could help identify where customers lived based on video data.
Tesla’s own privacy policy states, “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle”.
Reuters contacted over 300 Tesla employees for its story with more than a dozen agreeing to be interviewed anonymously as part of the story.
