Your Vehicle Knows More About You Than Your Phone Does. Does Your Brand Have a Plan for That?

Connected vehicles generate up to 25 gigabytes of data per hour. Some autonomous vehicles generate closer to 19 terabytes. Where you go, when you leave, how hard you brake, who's in the car, mobility platforms collect all of it, and most of the people generating that data have no idea.

According to a 2026 study, 82% of connected car drivers are unaware of the extent of data their vehicle collects. That number should give every technology company operating in the mobility space something to think about, not just from a legal standpoint, but from a brand one as well.

This Stopped Being a Compliance Issue a While Ago

The regulatory picture is getting more complex by the quarter. California's Privacy Protection Agency has had connected vehicle data practices under formal review since 2023. Sixteen states now have opt-out requirements on the books, with three more implementing theirs this year. In Australia, a 2026 privacy investigation was triggered specifically by connected vehicles collecting data well beyond what's needed for vehicle operation, with potential penalties reaching $50 million for the most serious violations.

While the legal teams are busy, communications teams, in most cases, aren’t keeping up.

By approaching data privacy as a brand issue, companies have an opportunity to build trust proactively.

Consumers Are Paying Attention, and Some Are Voting With Their Wallets

The 2025 Connected Car Study found that consumer willingness to pay for connected services dropped from 86% to 68% in a single year. That's a significant shift, and the primary driver was privacy concern. A separate RunSafe Security survey found that 79% of connected car owners now prioritize protection from cyberattack.

About 90% of new cars collect detailed driving data, some of which gets sold to third parties, including insurance companies. Ford, Honda, GM and others have been documented receiving payments from data brokers for this information. McKinsey projects the connected car data monetization market will be worth up to $750 billion by 2030.

That's a significant business opportunity sitting directly on top of a significant trust problem. How companies navigate that tension, and communicate about it, will matter even more as the market matures.

What the Companies Getting This Right Are Doing Differently

Only 42% of automotive OEMs have a chief privacy officer. The median industry privacy user experience score is 1.7 out of 5.0, with only five brands scoring above 3.0. Those numbers tell you where most of the industry is. They also tell you how much room there is to stand out.

The companies building genuine trust right now share a few things in common:

They explain what they collect and why, in language that doesn't require a law degree. Privacy policies that run tens of thousands of words and use bundled consent models — where a consumer agrees to full data collection simply by activating an app — are exactly the kind of practice that ends up in regulatory investigations and news stories.

They give users real control. The opt-out process at most manufacturers is obscure by design. The brands turning that process into a customer experience are building loyalty in the process.

And they get ahead of the story rather than waiting to respond to it. When a breach happens, or when a regulator comes calling, the companies with an established track record of transparent data communication are in a fundamentally different position than those that don’t.

The Practical Question

If a journalist, a regulator or a prospective customer asked you today to explain clearly what data you collect, why you collect it and how it's protected, how would that conversation go?

For a lot of mobility technology companies, the honest answer is that it would be harder than it should be. Not because the practices are bad, but because the communication around them hasn't been a priority.

That's fixable. And given where regulation and consumer awareness are both headed, sooner is better.