Companion apps for connected vehicles transmitted data to outside advertising and analytics companies in a new study by Northeastern University and Consumer Reports.
Accepting the terms on your car's companion app feels routine, about as consequential as clicking "agree" on a cookie banner.
What Researchers Actually Found The study used network-traffic analysis to map data flows between vehicles, companion apps, and outside companies.
Honda's response after reviewing the findings is worth noting: the automaker reportedly instructed analytics vendor Amplitude to delete location data it had received and stopped sending additional location data to that vendor.
That is a common pattern on the web, but one many drivers would not expect inside a vehicle app.