A US court ruled that cars can legally store and transmit users' text messages and phone records
CTOnews.com, Nov. 13 (Xinhua)-- A US court has ruled that a car's infotainment system can legally store and transmit text messages and call records on mobile phones, even if users delete them from their phones.
CTOnews.com noted that an appeals court in Washington ruled last week that it was not illegal for automakers such as Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors to store messages and call records from connected smartphones. The ruling was in response to five class-action lawsuits that were rejected earlier this year, and the Court of Appeal further rejected a request to reopen the cases for further investigation.
According to the complaint against Honda, the company's infotainment system for cars made since 2014 "stores a copy of every intercepted, recorded and downloaded text message in non-temporary computer memory so that car owners cannot access or delete it."
"even if the text message is deleted from the smartphone, Honda will keep a copy in the car's memory, even if the smartphone is disconnected," the plaintiff argued, as did the call records.
The plaintiffs pointed to Bella, Maryland, which makes equipment for Honda. They accused the company of "being able to extract stored text messages from infotainment systems". According to the lawsuit, Bella's software is not open to the public but is intended for use by law enforcement agencies.
"copies of text messages and call records stored on Honda can be retrieved by unauthorized users of Bella devices without any passwords, fingerprints, facial images or other security measures, thus bypassing the security measures used by plaintiffs and class members to protect data on mobile phones," the complaint alleged.
In other words, it is legal for cars to "automatically and unauthorized instantly intercept, record, download, store, and transmit" text messages and phone records, because according to the latest court ruling, the invasion of privacy is latent, but the damage caused to users is not necessarily actual. It is unclear whether the plaintiffs in the class action plan to appeal further.
