Ford exec says it doesn't collect or share car location data

A Ford executive told U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) that the automaker does not collect or share location data from cars without the operator's explicit permission.

Franken had asked Ford CEO Alan Mullaly for the information after Ford marketing chief Jim Farley told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show last month that the company has a pretty good idea of a person's driving habits based on data compiled from the navigation system data in their Ford vehicle.

In a letter, Franken asked Mulalley to spell out precisely what data Ford collects via in-vehicle GPS systems and how the company obtains driver consent to collect and share that data. Franken also asked who the information is shared with, how long it's stored and what security measures are used to protect it.

In a letter released by Franken this week, Ford's vice president of government relations Curt Magleby maintained the automaker only collects and uses location information from vehicles to support specific customer requests for service and to troubleshoot problems.

Ford's SYNC is a voice-activated system that provides wireless turn-by-turn navigation, traffic updates and other applications. SYNC is available for the auto maker's 2013 and 2014 models. (Photo: Ford Motor Co.)

He contended that Ford has strong accountability for the handling of any personally identifiable information of car owners, and that it employs strong physical, technological and administrative controls to protect the data.

Additionally, the company allows customers to delete any stored location data by calling the company, he said.

Magleby said that the embedded navigation systems in all Ford 2013 and 2014 model year vehicles store latitude, longitude, and timestamp data in a temporary buffer onboard the vehicle. The location data is typically stored for two to three weeks but is never transmitted off vehicle to Ford or any third-party Magleby said.

Ford's voice-activated SYNC system, which controls audio, climate, navigation and other features, can be paired via Bluetooth to a driver's mobile device, he said. Thus Ford can deliver a variety of other SYNC services, such as turn-by-turn navigation, traffic updates and business searches. A customer can also upload vehicle diagnostic information to Ford via SYNC, when it is paired with a customer's mobile device.

Some of the wirelessly connected applications involve off-vehicle transmission of location data, travel direction, saved charge locations (in the case of electric vehicles) and other information, to Ford and third-party service providers.

In all cases, the applications require specific consent from the vehicle operator via in-vehicle prompts, website user agreements or mobile app agreements, before they collect and transmit data from a vehicle. Ford and third-party service providers do not hold on to any personally identifiable location data collected via these services for more than 90 days, Magleby said.

The only time Ford shares location data with government or with law enforcement is in the event of an accident or in response to a court order.

In a statement, Franken said he was glad that Ford had responded to his question but said that companies need to provide more to information about location data collection practices to consumers.

"This is sensitive information -- and notices to consumers about this sensitive data shouldn't get lost in fine print," Franken said.

The Senator said he will soon reintroduce a location privacy bill he filed last year.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan, or subscribe to Jaikumar's RSS feed . His email address is jvijayan@computerworld.com.

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