Tesla is spying on people via car cameras, claim ex-employees who shared private videos on internal forum

From social media platforms tracking consumer behaviour, to devices like Alexa caught eavesdropping and apps with access to sensitive customer data, users are constantly being watched. Outrage over WhatsApp's decision to share data indicates that people still want to protect their data, but has privacy been reduced to a myth in the connected age?

Despite Tesla reassuring millions that their data is kept private, personal images and videos of motorists recorded by car cameras have been shared in an internal chatroom by Tesla employees.

Tesla is always watching

According to the firm's former employees, the clips include a man approaching a vehicle naked, along with videos of road rage, car crashes and one where a Tesla hit a child.

Some images were even turned into memes by the employees, who shared them on internal communication forums between 2019 and 2022.

The workers also have a software that could reveal the location of a recording and potentially indicate where a Tesla owner lives.

Garages and private properties were visible from recordings that were made even when the camera was supposedly turned off.

Musk's own garage was recorded?

Among the videos, employees also spotted the submersible car from a James Bond movie in a garage.

The vehicle is currently owned by Tesla's CEO Elon Musk himself, and it isn't clear if he knew about the recording.

The employees didn't save the videos and images, and can't confirm if the practice of sharing them in internal chatrooms still continues.

They spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity and have also claimed that the source of videos and pictures shared by them remained anonymous.

Published on: Friday, April 07, 2023, 06:12 PM IST