Toyota Australia says sensitive connected-car data "never transmitted"

Toyota Australia has confirmed highly sensitive customer data is encrypted and never transmitted from its vehicles, following recent calls for greater government regulation of information generated by ‘connected vehicles’.

Toyota Australia said at a recent business update at its Port Melbourne headquarters that there are now more than one million connected Toyotas on Australian roads, after it launched Toyota Connected Services in November 2020.

“What’s most important is that the data, the customer data, and privacy is highly governed with Toyota, highly governed.”

Asked whether a Toyota vehicle could be hacked, and what protections Toyota Australia vehicles have, Mr Pappas reiterated the automaker’s use of data encryption.

The program reported the revised policy removed previous references to 16 countries to which customer data could be sent.