Modern cars are no longer just tools for transport. They are connected computers on wheels, constantly generating and transmitting data about how you drive, where you go, and in some cases, even personal attributes inferred from your behavior.
This guide is for anyone who owns or is considering buying a connected car and wants to understand:
- What data does your car collect?
- Who can access it?
- How is it used and shared?
- What risks does this create?
- How can you reduce data collection?
By the end, you’ll have a clear, practical understanding of how connected vehicles handle personal data and what control you realistically have over it.
Quick answer: What data does your car collect?
Connected cars routinely collect far more data than most people expect. This includes driving behavior, location history, device identifiers, and in some cases, sensitive personal information.
Key takeaways:
- Even budget cars contain dozens of embedded computers (ECUs)
- Modern vehicles may transmit large volumes of data to manufacturers and third parties
- Data is often shared across multiple organizations (manufacturers, software providers, mapping services, advertisers, insurers)
- It is difficult to know exactly who has access to your data once it leaves the vehicle
- You can reduce some tracking, but not eliminate it completely
If you want to act immediately:
- Check your vehicle’s privacy settings or manual
- Look for “connected services” and disable what you don’t need
- Submit opt-out requests for data sharing where available
- Consider a full “factory reset” when selling a vehicle
The reality of connected cars
Cars have contained onboard computers since the late 1970s, starting with early electronic control units (ECUs). Today, even basic vehicles contain dozens of ECUs managing everything from braking systems to infotainment.
In modern designs:
- Entry-level vehicles may contain 30–50 ECUs
- High-end vehicles can match the complexity of aircraft systems
- Many ECUs are now networked and internet-connected
This shift has turned vehicles into continuous data generators. Depending on the configuration, connected cars may transmit a significant proportion of sensor and system data to cloud services.
As a result, cars are no longer isolated machines. Instead, they are part of a broader digital ecosystem involving manufacturers, software providers, mapping platforms, and data brokers.
Modern vehicles rely heavily on third-party components such as navigation systems, infotainment platforms, and telematics systems. Each of these may operate under separate data policies. In practice, a single GPS journey could involve multiple organizations:
- The car manufacturer
- The infotainment provider
- The mapping service
- Traffic analytics providers
- Cloud infrastructure vendors
This creates a complex data-sharing chain that is often opaque to the driver. Once collected, data may be shared internally within corporate groups or externally with third parties.
How much data do connected cars generate?
Estimates vary widely depending on vehicle type and level of autonomy. It is important to distinguish between data generated by onboard sensors and data transmitted over cellular connections, as these figures differ significantly.
A standard connected car produces a large volume of sensor data locally but typically transmits only a small amount over mobile networks (often in the range of a few gigabytes per month, depending on the services enabled).
Highly sensor-rich or semi-autonomous vehicles generate considerably more locally. Fully autonomous vehicle prototypes, which process continuous video and lidar feeds, are projected to generate multiple terabytes per hour at the sensor level — though again, what is actually transmitted externally is far less.
The key point is that data generation and transmission increase sharply as vehicles become more automated and sensor-heavy.
What data your car may collect
Research into manufacturer privacy policies shows that data collection falls into three broad categories.
1. Personal data about you
This can include:
- Contact details
- Location history
- Device identifiers
- Financial or account information (in some systems)
- In some cases, sensitive inferred attributes (e.g. preferences or behavioral profiles)
2. Driving and in-car behavior
Common examples include:
- Route history
- Speed and acceleration patterns
- Braking and steering behavior
- Seatbelt usage
- Voice commands and audio input
- Crash or near-crash events
3. Environmental and contextual data
Your car may also record:
- Road conditions
- Traffic signs
- Weather data
- Surrounding imagery (via cameras or sensors)
Different manufacturers collect different levels of detail, but data collection is now standard across most connected models.
How data becomes “inferences”
Raw data is often less valuable than what companies can infer from it. For example:
- Combining frequent late-night driving and route patterns can lead to lifestyle inferences
- Aggressive braking patterns can affect risk scoring for insurance
- Destination history can be used for behavioral profiling
Many manufacturers explicitly state that they may create inferred profiles based on driving behavior and other signals. These profiles can then be shared or sold to third parties.
Where your car data goes
Once collected, vehicle data may be shared across:
- Vehicle manufacturers and parent companies
- Software and telematics providers
- Data brokers and aggregators
- Insurance companies (for risk scoring)
- Advertisers and marketing platforms
- Financial institutions
- Law enforcement (in specific legal contexts)
Because “service provider” is often used as a broad category in privacy policies, it is difficult to identify all downstream recipients. Some companies aggregate vehicle data at scale and resell it for commercial use, particularly in insurance and mobility analytics.
Security and privacy risks
The most significant risk is not just data collection, but exposure. Common issues include:
- Third-party vendor breaches affecting vehicle data
- Misconfigured cloud storage exposing customer records
- Weak access controls in connected services
- Data leaks affecting prospective and existing customers
A large proportion of major car manufacturers have experienced at least one data incident involving customer information. Examples include:
- Toyota – Cloud misconfiguration exposed connected vehicle data including identifiers and possible location-linked information.
- Volkswagen – Misconfigured cloud storage leaked real-time location data for hundreds of thousands of EVs.
- Stellantis – Third-party breach exposed customer contact details like names and emails.
- Kia – Vulnerabilities in a connected services portal enabled potential vehicle tracking and remote access.
- Subaru – Security flaws in a connected platform exposed detailed vehicle location history data.
Can you see what data your car has?
Several tools allow drivers to check what types of data their vehicles may collect. By entering your VIN (vehicle identification number) into services such as Privacy4Cars’ Vehicle Privacy Report, you can typically learn:
- Whether location tracking is enabled
- Whether behavioral or biometric data is collected
- Whether data is shared or sold
- Whether the vehicle uses a built-in cellular connection
These tools don’t extract data from your car directly — they interpret manufacturer policies and known vehicle capabilities. Other similar lookup tools are available, and your manufacturer may offer its own transparency portal.
In some countries, vehicle manufacturers are legally required to provide the vehicle user with data collected by the vehicle. In EU countries, for example, the Data Act says that data must be made ‘easily’ available to the user.
How to reduce data collection
While you cannot fully opt out of data generation in modern vehicles, you can reduce exposure:
Practical steps
- Review your vehicle’s privacy and connectivity settings
- Disable unused connected services (navigation, voice, telematics where possible)
- Perform a factory reset before selling a vehicle
- Submit opt-out requests for targeted advertising or data sharing
- Limit smartphone pairing if it syncs sensitive data
Summary
The data collected by cars enables features like navigation, safety systems, and predictive maintenance. However, it also introduces significant privacy trade-offs — especially given the number of third parties involved in processing and sharing it.
For drivers, the key takeaway is that you don’t fully control what your car collects, but you can reduce how much is shared and who it is shared with.