Senators Edward J. Markey and Richard Blumenthal have written a letter to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, questioning him about the sharing of sensitive images recorded by cameras in customers' vehicles by Tesla employees, according to a report by Reuters.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks up as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway, on August 29, 2022. - The meeting, held in Stavanger from August 29 to September 1, 2022, presents the latest developments in Norway and internationally related to the energy, oil, and gas sector
Alleged Sharing of Private Recordings
The letter cites a Reuters investigation claiming that groups of Tesla employees had shared private and invasive recordings from customers' car cameras via an internal messaging system between 2019 and 2022.
The senators called this disregard for customer privacy unacceptable and raised serious concerns about Tesla's management practices.
The letter, seen by Reuters, urges Musk to ensure that any images or videos collected from Tesla vehicles are subject to strict privacy safeguards.
The senators have requested Musk to answer a set of questions, including whether Tesla executives knew about the sharing of sensitive images recorded by Tesla employees and why the company's internal policies were ineffective in stopping the practice.
The senators have given a deadline of May 5 for the responses.
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Privacy Concerns
Concerns have been raised about the privacy of Tesla customers after Reuters found that recordings shared by groups of employees included a child hit by a Tesla vehicle while riding a bicycle, a naked man approaching a car, and a submersible vehicle that had been featured in a James Bond film and was owned by Musk.
These highly invasive images were allegedly shared without the consent of customers.
According to Reuters, seven former Tesla employees were found to have had access to camera recordings that contained map location data. This claim has only added to the concerns regarding the company's handling of customer data and privacy.
The potential access to sensitive information about where a Tesla owner lives is alarming and raises questions about the safeguards to protect customer privacy.
This is not the first time Senators Markey and Blumenthal have expressed concerns about Tesla's practices. In addition to privacy concerns, they have also questioned the safety of Tesla's autonomous driving technology.
The senators' latest letter to Musk comes after a California Tesla owner filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging that employees accessed customer data for inappropriate purposes.
The lawsuit accused the automaker of using private customer data for "tasteless and tortious entertainment" and "the humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded," as Reuters' reported.
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