Tesla Owners File Class-Action Lawsuit About Alleged Privacy Violations

• Author: Natasha Herman
• Posted: 2024-12-08

For many Tesla enthusiasts, the car's ability to record security videos and driving footage is a bonus. However, it turns out that there might be some major privacy problems associated with the car's auto-recording feature. On Thursday, a shocking report from Reuters found that the electric vehicle company allegedly mishandled private customer videos. Many Tesla owners have already banded together to begin a lawsuit against the company.
 

Tesla Cameras Might Record More Than Owners Realized

Hypothetically, Tesla cameras are meant to help keep the vehicle secure. They can turn on to record footage right before a crash or automatically record footage if someone breaks into or vandalizes your car. However, depending on how a customer sets up their Tesla, it turns out that these cameras can capture and share a wide variety of information.

Many Tesla owners agreed to let Tesla look at their videos as part of the ongoing process of improving the car's software. However, most people did not realize that this would also mean sharing a lot of private information with Tesla. Especially if the video-sharing agreement is paired with ultra-sensitive "Sentry Mode" settings, Tesla can end up getting regular videos of customers' cars, property, garages, and locations. Even little things like leaves blowing in the wind can trigger the car to turn on cameras and send photos to Tesla.
 

Ex-Employees Say It Was Company Culture to Share Embarrassing Footage

Investigators at Reuters spoke to nine ex-employees of Tesla and learned that all this camera footage was being used for a lot more than just tracking car thieves or identifying software bugs. Between 2019 and 2022, Tesla employees allegedly made a habit of sharing any footage that they found funny or interesting.

Private employee messaging boards and chats shared things like clips of a naked man approaching a car and shots of unusual features on customers' properties. Dogs, road signs, customers' children, and more were spread throughout the company, and many of these images were turned into memes with Photoshop and captions. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk wasn't exempt from this spying. The employees reported that their coworkers even passed around footage of the inside of Musk's garage.

Some of these videos took on a dark turn. Employees who enjoyed black comedy regularly shared footage of disastrous wrecks and accidents. In one notable case, several Tesla employees spread a video of a child flying through the air after the Tesla struck its bicycle. Even in cases involving minors, nudity, or death, the footage was spread entirely without the knowledge of the people being filmed.
 

First Lawsuit About the Issue Is Filed in California

Just a few days after the public became aware of the issue, a class action lawsuit has already started. Henry Yeh, a Tesla owner from San Francisco, has filed a class-action suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The documents filed with the lawsuit claim that Tesla employees violated customers' privacy for their own entertainment purposes.

According to the lawsuit, Tesla has negligently misrepresented itself and its security policies. Yeh alleges that Tesla customers were not properly informed on how the videos would be used and that Tesla unjustly enriched itself by selling vehicles without expressing the potential privacy violations. The trial documents mention that Yeh is seeking compensatory damage related to privacy losses, damages to cover the cost of disabling cameras, and punitive damages related to the company's misbehavior.

So far, Tesla has not responded to requests for comments on the issue. This class action lawsuit is just the latest to involve Tesla. The company has also been sued due to its business practices of preventing maintenance from non-authorized providers and due to the potentially misleading marketing behind its autopilot system.
 

Countless Customers May Be Eligible to Join the Lawsuit

Part of Yeh's lawsuit requests a formal decision to classify the lawsuit as a class action suit. Until the court is able to review and decide on the petition, no one else can join. However, if the class action does proceed, many different people will be able to take part in the lawsuit.

Yeh's petition suggests that anyone who has owned or leased a Tesla since 2019 might be eligible. This class could include millions of people. If the lawsuit is expanded to include people who did not own the vehicle but were captured on video without proper consent, the lawsuit could include even more potential plaintiffs.