Tesla faces class-action lawsuit over privacy, following sensational revelations
Tesla is facing another class action lawsuit after a former employee released a report detailing alleged breaches of customer privacy.
In a sensational report earlier this week, Reuters released information provided to it by a former Tesla employee, alleging that a group of workers at the automaker privately shared photos and videos taken of customer vehicles between 2019 and 2022. Now a Tesla Model Y owner in San Francisco is suing the automaker for violating privacy, which can dramatically affect the industry’s general guidelines for privacy.
Henry Yeh, a current Model Y owner in the San Francisco, California area, has sued Tesla for the aforementioned privacy violations. In his suit, Yeh states that he is suing on behalf of “himself and similarly situated class members, and the general public.”[ads1]; Tesla’s legal team has yet to respond to the allegations.
In a comment to ReutersYeh’s lawyer Jack Fitzgerald states: “As anyone would be, Mr. Yeh was outraged by the idea that Tesla’s cameras could be used to invade family privacy, which the California Constitution carefully protects. Tesla must be held accountable for these intrusions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners.”
This isn’t the first time Tesla has faced allegations of privacy violations stemming from its vehicle cameras. Most recently, Tesla has been forced to introduce new privacy-oriented features and change its “guard mode advertising” in Germany following a similar lawsuit.
It should be noted that while Europe and the EU generally have stricter privacy laws, especially when it comes to recording and photographing citizens, the actions of employees accessing this data in the US may still be illegal.
The lawsuit by Henry Yeh has not been given a court date, nor has Yeh’s lawyer specified what the damages may amount to. However, in the suit released by Yeh, he is seeking payment for both actual and punitive damages, which are likely to run into the millions, depending on the extent of the alleged privacy violations.
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