Following accusations that staff exchanged camera footage of customers’ private lives, two Senate Democrats have demanded that Tesla do more to protect its customers’ data.
Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal charged Tesla with “willful disregard” for its customers’ privacy, noting that a recent Reuters story raises “serious questions about Tesla’s management practises.”
“We urge you to take all necessary actions to ensure that any images or videos collected consensually from Tesla vehicles are subject to strict privacy safeguards,” the senators wrote in a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk dated April 14th.
According to the April 6th Reuters report, Tesla staff passed around and mocked private videos obtained by vehicle cameras.
The recordings, which were purportedly exchanged over Tesla’s internal messaging systems from 2019 to 2022, were allegedly captured on cameras installed on Tesla vehicles to allow improved driver-assist technologies.
According to one former Tesla employee, several of the films were possibly captured when the vehicles were switched off.
According to Reuters, “we could see inside people’s garages and private properties.”
According to Markey and Blumenthal, the report exposes a misuse of Tesla’s safety features as well as a breach of trust with its customers.
The senators urged Elon Musk to explain the reason behind the misuse.
While there has been no response from Musk, it’s known that the billionaire tech founder isn’t in good terms with the senators because of their stance that wealthy people should pay more tax
