Sources: Tesla staff privately shared videos from customers' car cameras from 2019 to 2022 on an internal messaging system, including a child being hit by a car

Tesla Inc assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.”

Reuters 2023-04-07

Context & Ripple Effects

The report adds an internal-access dimension to Tesla’s earlier privacy record. Researchers’ findings that totaled Teslas retained unencrypted owner data had already highlighted how much sensitive information connected vehicles can hold beyond the road itself.

It also follows questions about who controls and can disclose vehicle data, after Tesla’s selective release of driver logs after crashes raised concerns about asymmetric access. The alleged sharing of camera footage makes governance of that data—not merely its collection—a central issue.

First-order effects

Tesla faces immediate trust and reputational pressure from owners whose vehicle cameras may have captured private or traumatic moments, while employees’ access to footage becomes a scrutiny point.
The allegations put Tesla’s internal controls for viewing, sharing and retaining customer video under focus, especially because the footage was reportedly circulated on an internal messaging system.

Second-order effects

Connected-car makers and camera-based driver-assistance providers may face stronger demands to demonstrate role-based access controls, audit trails and limits on internal use of customer footage.
Owners may weigh privacy practices more heavily when deciding whether to enable camera-dependent features, creating pressure for clearer disclosures and more granular data controls.

Third-order effects

As vehicles become persistent sensors, competitive differentiation is likely to shift from data collection alone toward verifiable governance: who can access recordings, under what circumstances, and with what accountability.
The episode points to a broader safety-auditability challenge: systems trained and investigated with real-world vehicle data will need privacy safeguards that do not obscure legitimate safety review.

The trend: The connected-car industry is moving toward treating in-cabin and exterior sensor data as a governed consumer asset, not simply an engineering input.

Discussion

Vox Sara Morrison on x
Tesla's cameras are reportedly spying on customers, but it's not just a Tesla problem
@jonkeegan@mastodon.social Jon Keegan on mastodon
Wow. Hell of a a hustle to report this out: “To report this story, Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla employees who had worked at the company over the past nine years and were involved in developing its self-driving system. …
@mcc@mastodon.social @mcc@mastodon.social on mastodon
“images were... made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats. While some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen by scores of them... …
@ericajoy@mastodon.cloud @ericajoy@mastodon.cloud on mastodon
assume every camera on everything with an internet connection is recording you and sending those images to some place with poor access controls on who can and cannot view them. — https://www.reuters.com/...
@LukaszOlejnik@mastodon.social Lukasz Olejnik on mastodon
Tesla employees were to watch recordings from cameras in Tesla cars. Also in quite embarrassing moments of passengers. Did they enjoy it? A working camera in a car is an increasingly popular “smart” solution. …
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
Here we have two kinds of Tesla employees: The ones who see nothing wrong with spying on customers without their consent, and the ones who think it's wrong but keep it a secret anyway. https://twitter.com/...
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
If the Reuters report is accurate, it looks like sharing, mocking and meme-ifying private footage of Tesla customers without their consent was not something done by a few bad apples. It was part of the fabric of Tesla's internal culture. https://www.reuters.com/... https://twitte…
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
The cameras in Tesla vehicles are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy,” the company claims. In fact, Tesla employees internally shared and joked about highly invasive videos of Tesla customers recorded by their own cars, per Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/...
@williamsmjw Michael Williams on x
.@Tesla workers shared videos recorded by customers' cars - including one of a naked guy, another of a child getting hit by a vehicle, ex-employees say. @stecklow @waylon_atx @hyunjoojin have the story: https://www.reuters.com/...
@heathat Heather Timmons on x
Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by cars in team chats, including of customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked. https://www.reuters.com/...
@reuters @reuters on x
For years, some Tesla employees circulated private and sometimes highly invasive recordings from customers' car cameras. One crash video, showing a child hit by a speeding Tesla, spread ‘like wildfire,’ one ex-worker told @Reuters https://www.reuters.com/... https://twitter.com/.…
@privacydigest @privacydigest on x
Tesla Camera Scandal is the Latest Lesson in Dangers of Letting Companies Record U File under “shocking but unsurprising.” Shocking because it's a significant abuse of privacy-but unsurprising because this pattern that has happened repeatedly 4 many years https://www.aclu.org/...
@marypcbuk Mary Branscombe on x
Tesla is one giant privacy violation glued to one giant HR violation after another https://twitter.com/...
@mydataorg @mydataorg on x
Does anyone know of a car manufacturer that actually cares about #privacy and gives car-owners access to the #data? Does not seem like Tesla is one: “We could see inside people's garages and their private properties,” said a former employee. #mydata https://www.reuters.com/...
@branmiz25 Brandon Mizroch on x
WHO IS STILL BUYING THESE CARS??? I mean Jesus Christ https://twitter.com/...
@mammothfactory @mammothfactory on x
just another reason to burn every Tesla to the ground https://twitter.com/...
@1ericasavage Erica Savage on x
“Other images...employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats. While some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen by scores of them, according to several ex-employees.” …
@satiristas @satiristas on x
Elon really digging into being the Deep State here https://twitter.com/...
@boobalander1970 @boobalander1970 on x
Imagine some perverts at Tesla, looking at you or your wife or your kids when you think you are alone in the garage or wherever. Then sharing those videos. Fucking weirdos and psychopaths https://twitter.com/...
@aclu @aclu on x
This is yet another example of a corporation being careless with our most personal data — and why we need robust privacy laws. https://www.aclu.org/...
@bnox @bnox on x
“One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another.” https://www.reuters.com/...
@heardchefjared JaredPierre on x
This is why I'm totally fine with having an older vehicle https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
My working model is that if a company isn't under some privacy consent decree then they haven't yet learned to add privacy compliance mechanisms as they scaled from startup to big company. I feel that way about Ring, Tesla, Furbo and all other camera apps https://www.reuters.com/…
@phil_lewis_ Philip Lewis on x
For years, some Tesla employees circulated private and sometimes highly invasive recordings from customers' car cameras “We could see them doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids.” https://www.reuters.com/...
@jbenton Joshua Benton on x
hey, look, they're free-speech absolutists, this is all just part of a healthy discourse about naked guys and kids hit by cars https://twitter.com/...
@stshank Stephen Shankland on x
Looks like Tesla employees watched and shared videos their customers' cars recorded, Reuters reports. Road rage incidents, crashes, embarrassing scenes, funny signs. https://www.reuters.com/...
@kerrymflynn Kerry Flynn on x
“Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla employees who had worked at the company over the past nine years and were involved in developing its self-driving system. More than a dozen agreed to answer questions, all speaking on condition of anonymity.” https://reuters.com/...
@tim_stevens Tim Stevens on x
Later, reviewing the Model 3, the auto-headlights were going spastic. I asked PR for a comment. They asked me at what times I experienced the issue — so that the engineers wouldn't have to scrub through my entire 7 days of driving footage. All recorded, apparently.
@tweetermeyer E.W. Niedermeyer on x
More recently, @CRcars raised privacy concerns about Tesla's “driver monitoring” cameras, which seem to be more designed to stick drivers with the blame for crashes than actually prevent inattention https://www.consumerreports.org/ ...
@zacestrada Zac Estrada on x
@Tim_Stevens that's in line with some of the creepier stories I've heard
@tim_stevens Tim Stevens on x
The first time I reviewed a Model S over a decade ago I got a warning light on the dash. I called the PR rep at the time who said “Oh don't worry, we're watching you. It's fine.” Needless to say I always tried to be on my best behavior in Tesla review vehicles after that. https:/…
@tweetermeyer E.W. Niedermeyer on x
If you didn't know Tesla wantonly violates user privacy, you haven't been paying attention. Way back in 2016 I noted Tesla regularly broke it's own TOU to push back against owner claims that Autopilot was involved in crashes. https://qz.com/...
@lorakolodny Lora Kolodny on x
TLDR; Tesla employees and contractors tasked with data labeling of videos from the cars' cameras sometimes made a bunch of whack jokes about rather personal images, and sometimes had access to Google Maps location data showing where customers were located. https://twitter.com/...

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