Tesla is facing a class-action lawsuit amid news of the release of videos of customers’ private lives captured by in-car cameras. A Reuters article published on Thursday cited several ex-Tesla employees as saying they shared these confidential videos and images in their work chats, and even turned them into memes.
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The videos included pictures of pets, funny road signs and other intact content. However, there were also those who filmed the interior of customers’ garages, road accidents involving a child or a naked man approaching his car.
“We saw them doing laundry and doing intimate things. We saw their children,” said one former Tesla employee.
The automaker recently detailed its approach to data privacy, noting that information is processed directly in the vehicles and only certain data is shared with Tesla. Most of this data is “anonymous and not critical to security.” However, seven ex-employees of the company told Reuters that a computer program they used at work could show the location of the records – potentially revealing where the car’s owner lives.
The legal firm Fitzgerald Joseph LLP has already responded to the accusations, which filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Northern California on behalf of Tesla owner Henry Yeh from San Francisco. The complaint alleges that the company violated the California State Constitution, privacy laws and its own privacy policy. Tesla is also accused of defrauding customers and demanding compensation for actual damages, as well as payment of fines. Damages are not listed, but the total amount offered to pay the company is $5 million.
The plaintiffs say that setting up full privacy for Tesla customers requires the involvement of professionals who can turn off the car’s cameras for a fee. One former Tesla employee said he temporarily taped off his car’s cameras after seeing what information the automaker could access.
The lawsuit alleges that the videos were “allegedly” shared outside the organization, although the Reuters report did not specifically state that.
The text of the lawsuit can be read here.
