Tesla, an Elon Musk-run company has promised its car owners that privacy is a priority for the company.
As per the company, they have made cameras in their vehicles to aid drivers, and they were made to safeguard their privacy. Although, between 2019 and 2022, many Tesla employees privately shared through an internal messaging system videos and images captured by the car cameras of owners.
Sensitive And Encroaching Videos
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The car videos have disclosed sensitive and encroaching recordings, as per the interview Reuters done with nine ex-employees.
In some cases, the videos displayed some embarrassing conditions, like a man going to the vehicle naked. The images also displayed crashes along with road-rage incidents.
An ex-employee has revealed a video demonstrating a Tesla car driving at high speed in a residential area which eventually hit a child. This resulted in the image of Tesla demolishing a San Mateo, California office through private face-to-face chats.
Computer Program Revealed The Exact Location
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As per the interview by Reuters, several ex-employee shared that most of the recordings were shared between two staff. At the same time, the recordings of the camera were shared anonymously and the name of the owner was not revealed.
Meanwhile, the computer program of the company could disclose the exact location of the recordings which will eventually reveal the place where the Tesla owner lived.
It was also revealed that some of the recordings were made when cars were in parking and also turned off.
Elon Musk’s Car Was Also Spied
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As per the employees, the car of the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Elon Musk i.e, a white Lotus Esprit which got featured in the 1977 James Bond movie “The Spy who loved me” got spied from the camera and shared in a private group chat.
Two ex-employees were not worried at all regarding the sharing of images, as owners had given their consent or we can say they already gave up their expectations of keeping their data private.
Three others were worried revealing that it was a violation of privacy and the owners didn’t know that their privacy was being taken care of.
Some of the ex-staffs witnessed no issue while sharing images but found the option that permitted data labelers to see the location of recordings on Google Maps as a “great capture of privacy.”
The Official Of Cybersecurity And Privacy Institute Comments
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As per David Choffnes, the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, the sharing of sensitive videos and images by the employees of Tesla is referred “morally disgraceful.”
He went on further say that “Any normal human being will not appreciate this and will be offended by this.”