Tesla Leak Exposes Data Breaches & Safety Complaints

Tesla didn't protect data from customers, employees, and partners well. They got a lot of complaints about the carmaker's driver assistance system. A whistleblower leaked 100 GB of confidential data. Handelsblatt reported this.

The report said lots of customer data is in the "Tesla Files".

The info leaked has important details like names, social security numbers, bank info, and private data. Tesla's boss Elon Musk is on the list. The data includes secret stuff about production, too.

The newspaper stated that the breach breaks GDPR rules.

The Guardian did not check the documents themselves.

The data protection office in Brandenburg is where Tesla's European gigafactory is located. They said the data leak is big.

Dagmar Hartge, the Brandenburg data protection officer, said she couldn't remember a scale like this.

Tesla may be fined up to 4% of its yearly sales if proven to have violated. This could amount to €3.26bn ($3.5bn).

The newspaper talked about leaked files. Customers had lots of complaints about Tesla's driver assistance programs. There were 4,000 complaints about sudden acceleration or phantom braking.

German union IG Metall is concerned about recent revelations regarding data protection violations at Tesla. They urge the company to keep employees informed of such incidents. IG Metall also wants Tesla to create a work environment that promotes addressing concerns without fear of retaliation.

Dirk Schulze, who is about to become the district manager for Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony in the IG Metall union, thinks that these revelations fit with what they have learned in less than two years.

Tesla's lawyer told Handelsblatt that a former employee with access as a service technician leaked information. Tesla is planning to take legal action against the suspected person.

On Friday, the Netherlands data protection watchdog claimed it knew about likely breaches in Tesla's data protection.

The AP data watchdog in the Netherlands is checking the Handelsblatt story. Tesla's European headquarters is located in the Netherlands. A spokesperson said that they are aware of the story.

The agency wouldn't say anything about the investigation. They have a policy about that. The Dutch agency found out from their partners in Germany.

Tesla told Dutch authorities about the breach, according to Handelsblatt. But the AP spokesperson isn't sure if Tesla reached out to them.

Tesla did not make any comments on Friday.

Tesla workers shared private videos and images from customers' car cameras. This happened using an internal messaging system. A news report from Reuters revealed this. The sharing occurred between 2019 and 2022. Some of the videos and images were invasive.

Facebook's parent company Meta got a big fine of €1.2bn from EU privacy regulator. They were fined over how they handle user information. The company has been given five months to stop transferring user data to the US.