cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1247209/all-cars-sold-in-the-eu-now-require-a-camera-aimed-at-your-face-its-still-not-clear-wher
Starting July 7, 2026, every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face. Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert.
Automakers have known this was coming for years. What they, and EU regulators, have never spelled out is what happens to that footage after the alert goes off.
While the intention behind the new system is difficult to dispute, its implementation has raised several concerns. Early real-world testing suggests the distraction warnings can be overly sensitive and potentially distracting.
In EU this would be a massive GDPR breach and cost the company €20 million or 4% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover**
In Germany you face Up to 3 years imprisonment or a fine for transferring data to a third party you weren’t authorized to share.
In France Collecting data by fraudulent, unfair, or unlawful means carries up to 5 years.
In California CCPA allows fines up to $7,500 per intentional violation (e.g per customer)
Firstly misleading disclosures are not valid under both GDPR & CCPA
GDPR - Consent must be “freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous”
CPRA definies “dark patterns” as a user interface designed to subvert or impair user autonomy, decision-making, or choice and states outright: agreement obtained through use of dark patterns does not constitute consent.
Secondly do you have any evidence of said disclosures?
has anyone gone to jail through gdpr?
also, really cool stuff collecting all this info thank you.
but yeah, i don’t see this conversation going any further, laws state one thing, reality is a-whole-nother. especially when the rich are involved.
i hope to God you are right about all this, i really do, I’ve just seen it enough times to know…
Not GDPR but the French & German laws which implement GDPR can result in jail time.
Networks aren’t magic, if people are sending data from your car it’s going to leave a trace, given nobody is showing any traces you might as well be claiming wizards are stalking you.
Urgh, come now. This is currently happening and yes it is likely a breach of EU laws, but it is happening now. Multiple auto companies have been caught doing it, its not a theoretical what if. Like many things if the government does not enforce (but instead gives a fine) then it does not matter what the law says.
You sound like those people saying murder can’t happen since it is illegal, but they are just taking the piss.
You sound like one of their paranoid shut-ins that thinks crime rates are going up, even though every metric shows they are going down.
Data isn’t magic, you don’t collect data on everyone’s cars without leaving a network footprint.
You sound like you are putting words in my mouth. You also sound like you have zero idea about current data collection practices to a shocking degree.