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Tesla Inc assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” But is it really true?
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In an interview with Reuters, 9 former employees shared that from 2019-22 Tesla employees groups shared videos and images recorded by customers' cars via Internal Messaging system.
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In some recordings Tesla customers were caught in embarrassing circumstances, one of which was described by an interviewee that a man approaching his vehicle was completely naked.
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Another ex-employee shared the road rage and accident incident which spread in office in california via private chats, stating a crash video of 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike. Both the child and bike flew in opposite directions.
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Tesla states in its online “Customer Privacy Notice” that its “camera recordings remain unknown and are not linked to you or your vehicle.”
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But 7 ex-employees shared with Reuters, the computer program they used at work could show the location of recordings – which potentially could reveal where a Tesla owner lived.
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One ex-employee also said that some recordings seem to have been made when cars were parked and turned off.
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Few years ago, Tesla would receive video recordings from its vehicles even when they were off, if owners gave consent. It has since stopped doing so.
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In the interview they said, “We could see inside people's garages and their private properties”. “Let's say that a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds of things.”
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