Tesla Leaks Massive Data: Safety Woes Galore
Tesla did not protect data well and received many complaints about driver assistance. A whistleblower leaked 100 GB of confidential data. This was reported by Handelsblatt in Germany. The leaked data came from customers, employees, and business partners.
A report from Handelsblatt said that customer data was found in a data set called "Tesla Files". The report mentioned that the data was available in large quantities.
There are files with lots of information. They have more than 100,000 workers' names. These workers are present and past employees. Elon Musk is in the files too. The files have private information, like email addresses and phone numbers. They also have how much people make and bank details. The production of the company has secret details in the files. Handelsblatt reported on this.
The newspaper said the breach breaks the GDPR.
The Guardian did not check the documents themselves.
The data protection office in Brandenburg said the data leak was big. Tesla's European gigafactory is in Brandenburg.
Dagmar Hartge, the Brandenburg data protection officer, said she couldn't remember such a big scale.
Tesla might face a fine of €3.26bn ($3.5bn). It's because of a violation. If proven, the fine could be up to 4% of annual sales.
The newspaper said that leaked files showed lots of customer complaints about Tesla's driver assistance programs. 4000 people complained about sudden acceleration or phantom braking.
IG Metall, a German union, called the Tesla revelations "disturbing." They want Tesla to inform their employees of all data protection violations and create a safe environment for staff to address problems and concerns without fear.
Dirk Schulze, the incoming district manager for Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony, stated that these new findings align with what they have learned in the past two years.
A lawyer for Tesla says a former employee leaked information. They used their access as a service technician to do this. The lawyer says Tesla will take legal action against the person they suspect did the leak.
On Friday, Netherlands' data protection watchdog admitted to being informed about potential breaches in Tesla's data protection.
The AP data watchdog in the Netherlands is investigating the Handelsblatt story about Tesla. Tesla's European headquarters are in the Netherlands. A spokesperson confirmed this.
They didn't say anything about whether they will investigate or not. They have a policy. The Dutch agency got a message from the German state of Brandenburg.
The news site Handelsblatt reported that Tesla told the Dutch officials about the hack. However, the spokesperson for AP didn't know if Tesla informed them.
On Friday, Tesla did not give any comments.
A report from Reuters last month said Tesla employees shared videos and images taken by customers’ car cameras on an internal messaging system. Some of the videos were very invasive and this went on from 2019 to 2022.
Facebook's parent company Meta got fined €1.2bn by the EU privacy regulator. It is the largest fine ever! Meta needs to sort out how they handle user data. They also have five months to stop transferring user data to the US.
