Last year, the US Congress held hearings on TikTok and debated the security of the platform, the data it collected, and what it may be sending back to China. This past month, we learned Temu, a shopping app owned by Pinduoduo, China’s second most popular online shopping site, is very sophisticated spyware. This shopping application was heavily hyped during the last two Super Bowls with the slogan “Shop Like a Billionaire.” This “free” application was the second most popular free app on Apple’s App Store following the Super Bowl. Researchers have found that the Android version can escalate its privilege and install a rootkit. At this point, its data collection engine is ALWAYS running in the background, even when you haven’t used Temu since the last time you rebooted your phone. The extent to which this program is harvesting data from those Android phone users is still being determined, but we know it collects a user’s locations, contacts, calendars, notifications, photo albums, social media account data, and chat sessions, all without their consent. This is all on the phone; imagine if it were a car.
Unlike regular Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are rolling data centers. Most are designed to support some form of assisted driving and, eventually, full self-driving. Therefore, many have full 360-degree camera coverage around the outside of the car and in the car. If you own a Tesla, have you ever used “Dog Mode?” Tesla has nearly full camera coverage for everything inside the car, so for clueless teenagers and parents, the backseat is no longer for private “discussions.” While this is a Tesla-specific branded feature, you can bet that other manufacturers have similar in-vehicle cameras, even if they are not branded and announced features. “Dog Mode” is a side effect of having the camera to monitor driver engagement for self-driving enablement; Tesla just got clever and repurposed/rebranded it.
Are conversations in an EV private? Doubtful. Since most EVs also have voice control, this means there’s always a hot mic. Most of these EVs also include a 5G cellular data connection back to the manufacturer for “over-the-air updates” and to send video, traffic, and mapping data back to their road and traffic mapping systems. Since data is flowing both ways, it’s open to being exploited.
Next week, I take delivery of a new Tesla Model 3. Honestly, I look forward to “over-the-air updates,” Sentry Mode, Dog Mode, voice commands, and the whole enchilada. Still, even then, I won’t do or say anything in or around my car that will give away any national secrets, mainly because I don’t have any. Product or technology secrets, on the other hand, are possible. As many of you know, I work in high-tech at a semiconductor company, so innovation and intellectual property are part of our business. I seriously doubt Tesla would jeopardize its reputation by storing cabin recordings.
On the other hand, EV cars designed in China and built by Chinese firms are a whole different story. If I took a business meeting in an EV designed in China, I’d worry that what I’m saying will be played out of speakers a half world away shortly after my call concludes. So, I wouldn’t take the risk of ever considering purchasing this vehicle class. I fear that others will not be so savvy, and this will be just another example of our secrets being exfiltrated because the less informed were busy “Shopping Like a Billionaire!”