Connected Cars Share A Lot More Data With Companies Than Owners May Realize

A study of 21 connected vehicles found widespread communication with third-party advertising and analytic companies.

Tesla Starlink

Photo by: InsideEVs

Rob Stumpf

By: Rob Stumpf

Sep 29, at 6:30pm ET

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Researchers tested 21 different connected cars and 30 companion apps.
Tesla, Cadillac, and Lucid topped the charts of biggest offenders.
Many car companies pointed to their privacy policies or third-party contracts.

Cars have become tremendously good at talking to things. Phones, satellites, charging networks, vehicle-to-whatever—there's no shortage of connectivity in 2026. A group of researchers wanted to know a bit more about who exactly these modern cars are chatting with, and the surprising data shows that many of those conversation partners are businesses who had nothing to do with selling you the car.

Working with Consumer Reports, researchers at Northeastern University examined 21 vehicles across 21 different brands (plus 30 automaker companion apps) from October 2024 though August 2025. They scanned the vehicles' wifi and cellular data streams, poked at infotainment systems, and even stuffed the cars into giant faraday tents. Here's what they found.

Bosch Connected AI Cockpit

Photo by: Bosch

Of the 21 cars tested, 19 phoned home to at least one third-party over the internet. More than half contacted a domain that the researchers classified as advertising, tracking, or analytics (ATA) for companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Mapbox, Meta, and more. 7 of the 30 vehicle companion apps transmitted sensitive identifiers (like the vehicle's VIN, the user's email or phone number, and the precise location) to third-parties associated with ATAs.

Tesla topped the charts with 34 unique ATA domains reached by the Model 3 and 23 in the Cybertruck. That may raise an eyebrow to owners who were just questioning why their U.S.-built Teslas were phoning in to China over the last two weeks. The Cadillac Lyriq was behind the Tesla with 10 unique ATA domains, followed by Lucid at 9, and the Chevy Blazer at 7.

Inversely, the research found the the Nissan Ariya, Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes EQS, and Buick Envista contacted no ATA domains at all. After studying the cars, the researchers pinged 17 of the 18 automakers to disclose their findings. Only 14 replied.

All of the automakers told the researchers that the domains were "in line with the contracts they have with their third party service providers," according to the whitepaper. The companies went on to outline that the contracts prohibit the use of personally identifiable information outside of the contract terms. Honda, which classified the car's VIN number as a commercial item used for marketing, reportedly agreed to reclassify it after the researchers reached out.

Five car companies blamed the browsers embedded in the vehicles' infotainment systems, and seven others said that it was the consumer's responsibility to read the terms of service by the serviced embedded in the vehicle—such as Spotify, Google's operating system, and more.

The researchers also shamed car companies like Tesla and Rivian for warning owners that disabling telematic connectivity and data sharing could result in degraded vehicle functionality.

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This isn't the first time that we've heard about modern cars being a data privacy nightmare. And in the age of connectivity, it likely won't be the last. After all, automakers see software-defined vehicles as the future and are basically drooling over the potential recurring revenue they can extract from consumers.

There are legitimate use cases for collected data; telematics and connectivity to the car's app for remote control to name just a few. But if data is being shared in ways that an owner doesn't agree with and the only way to opt-out also limits vehicle function, the study is surfacing a very real consumer protection issue that should be considered when buying a new car. Those who want an electric experience but stay off-the-grid digitally may want to wait for the upcoming Slate pickup.

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