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submitted 7 hours ago by beep@piefed.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1247209/all-cars-sold-in-the-eu-now-require-a-camera-aimed-at-your-face-its-still-not-clear-wher

Starting July 7, 2026, every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face. Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert.

Automakers have known this was coming for years. What they, and EU regulators, have never spelled out is what happens to that footage after the alert goes off.

While the intention behind the new system is difficult to dispute, its implementation has raised several concerns. Early real-world testing suggests the distraction warnings can be overly sensitive and potentially distracting.

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[-] Glitchvid@lemmy.world 9 points 4 hours ago

Hiding? Modern vehicles straight up have cell modems and advertise it, look up Toyota Connected Services for example.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world -4 points 4 hours ago

They aren't giving you an eSim for free.

[-] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago

for the amount of money they would profit just from selling that data to insurance companies is enough to cover a fucking esim.

also, i forgot that cars are free these days and not thousands of dollars.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Are you saying they have a secret program where they illegally take your data and sell it to insurance companies?

[-] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago

i am suggesting that doing so would be profitable.

i don't believe this would be illegal.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

Selling tracking data from your customers without disclosing it would absolutely be illegal.

You'd go to jail if you did that in Europe, likely face a huge fine in certain US states too.

[-] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

lol, you think the executives would go to jail? or the engineers?

guess what was illegal before the snowden leaks, guess what's legal now.

i don't want to suggest i know the specifics of the law, especially in countries i don't even live in, but to think it's an impossibility is pretty bewildering to me.

edit: also they disclose that shit, just in a very vague way to allow a wide interpretation of what was disclosed.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 0 points 17 minutes ago* (last edited 17 minutes ago)

In EU this would be a massive GDPR breach and cost the company €20 million or 4% of the company's total worldwide annual turnover**

In Germany you face Up to 3 years imprisonment or a fine for transferring data to a third party you weren't authorized to share.

In France Collecting data by fraudulent, unfair, or unlawful means carries up to 5 years.

In California CCPA allows fines up to $7,500 per intentional violation (e.g per customer)

they disclose that shit, just in a very vague way to allow a wide interpretation of what was disclosed.

Firstly misleading disclosures are not valid under both GDPR & CCPA

  • GDPR - Consent must be "freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous"

  • CPRA definies "dark patterns" as a user interface designed to subvert or impair user autonomy, decision-making, or choice and states outright: agreement obtained through use of dark patterns does not constitute consent.

Secondly do you have any evidence of said disclosures?

[-] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 1 hour ago

Cell companies can give those out for free if they want to... What they offer to consumers is absolutely not the same as what they might offer to a car company at bulk rates. They could even have the car store data and wait for low usage times to upload, it would cost cell providers almost nothing

They might even leverage it to use up bandwidth so they don't have to sell to secondary carriers if they wanted to one day...

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Are you saying they have a secret program where they illegally take your data and to pass this data around without your permission they have a secret bulk deal with telecoms peoviders

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 3 points 4 hours ago

That's why they're taking the video.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago

So they are taking a video of you and in exchange giving you $10-50/month worth of data access?

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 2 points 3 hours ago

Data doesn't cost that much.

this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
180 points (97.9% liked)

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