Your car and its mobile app are probably handing over all kinds of data to tech companies

The connected car has always been sold as a convenience story: remote start, live traffic, over-the-air updates. But the Northeastern University research, covered by TechCrunch, pulls back the curtain on the less glamorous reality—that these features are subsidized by data. The vehicle is no longer just a machine that gets you from point A to point B; it is a sophisticated sensor platform that knows where you go, how you drive, when you accelerate, and who you are. And unlike your smartphone, where privacy settings are at least nominally accessible, the data flows from your car are often buried in dense privacy policies that no one reads. What makes this particularly insidious is the "companion app" angle. Consumers voluntarily install these apps, often because they are required for basic features like remote locking or EV charge monitoring, and in doing so they hand over the keys to their digital identity. The app doesn't just talk to the car; it talks to a web of ad-tech intermediaries and data brokers. The researchers found that this data is shared "regularly" with some of the largest tech companies, which raises the question: are these companies monetizing the data directly, or are they merely providing backend infrastructure? Either way, the user loses control. This is a textbook case of the "privacy paradox" colliding with the Internet of Things. We want smart features, but we don't want to pay with our personal information. The problem is that the market has never given us a real choice. There is no "premium" tier where you pay cash to opt out of data collection in most vehicles. The data extraction is simply the price of admission, hidden in the fine print. As Ada Circuit has noted before, when a product is free, you are the product; when a product costs $50,000, you are still the product—you just paid extra for the privilege. The regulatory landscape is lagging badly behind. While the EU's GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) offer some protections, they are blunt instruments for a sector as complex as automotive data. The FTC has taken an interest in connected car privacy, but enforcement actions are few and far between. Until regulators force automakers to adopt a "data minimization" standard—collect only what is necessary, delete it after a short period, and never share it without explicit opt-in—this trend will continue. The research from Northeastern is a wake-up call, but it will only be meaningful if it pushes consumers to demand better and regulators to act with urgency. Source: [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/29/your-car-and-its-mobile-app-are-probably-handing-over-all-kinds-of-data-to-tech-companies/)