Overview
While advanced safety technologies have the potential to provide enormous safety, convenience and other important benefits to consumers, stakeholders frequently raise data privacy concerns as a potential impediment to deployment. NHTSA takes consumer privacy seriously, diligently considers the privacy implications of our safety regulations and voluntary guidance, and works closely with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) -- the primary Federal agency charged with protecting consumers’ privacy and personal information -- to facilitate the protection of consumer information.
Data Privacy
Why It Matters
In the context of advanced and automated safety technologies, consumer acceptance is critical to effective and timely deployment. These technologies generate, use and may share a significant amount of vehicle data likely to be viewed by private citizens as sensitive and personal (for example, routes frequently travelled and precise addresses visited). Consumer avoidance of new technologies because of concerns about data privacy may slow deployment and undermine promising safety benefits (i.e., lives saved and injuries avoided).
Key Federal Agencies
Although NHTSA has broad regulatory authority over the safety of passenger vehicles, it is the FTC that is the primary federal agency responsible for protecting consumer privacy. The FTC and NHTSA staff meet, coordinate, collaborate and communicate frequently on privacy issues related to motor vehicles, including those involving new technologies such as connected and automated safety systems. Most recently, in June 2017, the FTC and NHTSA jointly held a well-attended workshop in Washington, DC, to examine the consumer privacy and security issues posed by automated and connected motor vehicles. For information,visit: FTC website.
NHTSA is dedicated to advancing the lifesaving potential of vehicle technologies
NHTSA has broad regulatory authority over the safety of passenger vehicles and to issue voluntary guidance or mandate standards through a rulemaking process to address safety. Its safety regulations and voluntary guidance apply primarily to manufacturers of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment. NHTSA takes consumer privacy seriously, but does not have a unique role or specific authority to regulate consumer privacy or third parties in the context of motor vehicles or motor vehicle data, or to enforce consumer privacy laws. NHTSA’s role with respect to the privacy of vehicle data is limited to instances when safety regulations may have privacy impacts on individuals.
Consistent with its existing authority, NHTSA is responsible for addressing privacy only in the following contexts:
- Like all federal agencies, NHTSA diligently considers the privacy impacts of its activities, regulations and voluntary guidance, and informs the public about any consumer privacy impacts through its rulemaking notices and published privacy impact assessments.
- In the context of vehicle safety technologies that raise concerns about consumer privacy, NHTSA examines privacy as a component of public acceptance in our rulemaking process. This is an aspect of the “practicability” that the agency is required to consider when proposing a motor vehicle safety standard under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
- NHTSA may issue voluntary guidance on emerging safety technologies that incorporates data privacy best practices in order to enhance consumer acceptance and avoid delaying deployment.
External Links
Documents appearing in the External Information portion of this Web site are provided in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in the documents are those of the author(s) and not those of the Department of Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government does not endorse products or organizations.
Data Generated by Vehicles
- Personal Data In Your Car (PDF, 830KB)
- Data and the Connected Car (PDF, 220KB)
NHTSA welcomes feedback on the draft content of its Vehicle Data Privacy web page. The Agency will accept suggestions and comments via email to NHTSAPrivacyCounsel@dot.gov.