Carmakers plan to sell your data to the highest bidder
Personal information – and how to make money out of it – is exercising the minds of makers and tech firms
13 February 2021 • 12:00pm
As you drive down the motorway, your car monitors your speed, the temperature, the harsher-than-usual acceleration and turning patterns, and your battery level.
A synthetic voice interrupts the radio to tell you that at current traffic conditions, your car will need recharging before you make it home.
A charging station ahead is offering a discount to drivers who use the coupon flashing up on the car’s giant touchscreen. While you’re there, perhaps you should purchase a salad: the pressure sensors in your seat have recorded above average measurements recently. The announcement is the conclusion of a frantic, but instant, programmatic bidding war on an advertising exchange that has been fed hundreds of pieces of driving data from your vehicle. As connected cars have proliferated, every