Privacy sensitive
From now on, Tesla cars in the Netherlands will no longer be able to make long-term video recordings of their surroundings. This is reported by the Dutch Data Protection Authority, which questioned the privacy sensitivity of the so-called ‘Sentry Mode’.
You can probably imagine that it is nice to have a picture of the surroundings of your Tesla if the car is stolen or damaged. Sentry Mode makes this possible, thanks to four cameras on the outside of the car that continuously film. The result, however, is that one hour of footage is saved of the car’s surroundings, even if nothing happens there. The Dutch Data Protection Authority thought that was a bit too much. “So many Teslas parked on the street often filmed everyone who came close to the car, and also kept those images for a very long time. If every car does that, you get a situation where you can no longer walk freely on the street without being spied on. “, says board member Katja Mur.
Tesla itself also thinks that it can be a little less. The Dutch Data Protection Authority reports that Tesla has responded to the objections and that Sentry Mode has been stripped down considerably after an update. From now on, the owner will first receive a notification if the car has actually been touched and can then switch on the cameras. A maximum of 10 minutes of footage is then saved. The central screen in the Tesla shows that filming is being done and the headlights also give a signal to inform the surrounding area.
Mur is satisfied and emphasizes the importance of this adjustment: “Passers-by were filmed without their knowledge. The owner of the Tesla could watch those images. If he parked the car in front of someone’s window, he could peek in and see what that person all did. That is a serious violation of privacy. So it is good that Tesla itself also took a critical look at this and adjusted it.”
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl