As part of its commitment to consumer privacy, Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) has announced the creation of the Toyota Data Privacy Portal to increase data transparency and accessibility. This initiative will also enhance control for Toyota and Lexus vehicle owners.
Toyota has been playing a pivotal role in automotive privacy, most notably with its industry leadership and involvement in the development and adoption of the Automotive Consumer Privacy Protection Principles in 2014. These principles, submitted by Toyota and 19 other automakers to the Federal Trade Commission at the time of release, established a set of baseline protections for personal information collected through in-car technologies.
Building upon its commitment to privacy, TMNA conducted an extensive, cross-industry survey to gather insights about what consumers look for regarding privacy.
The survey results demonstrated a pressing need for clear, simple and transparent descriptions of the personal data collected from consumers and their connected vehicles. Consumers want this communicated to them in a way they can easily understand, so they can make an informed decision about how their personal data is used. The survey also sought the requirements on how this personal data will be used to provide their connected services and applications within their vehicles without using long-form responses in legalese and technical jargon.
To further build on its efforts to address this need, the automaker created Data Privacy Portal to give consumers a clear understanding and control over how their personal data is used, including providing options to share data to benefit them while making it easy to de-enrol should they choose. Data Privacy Portal informs users when an impactful change has been made to their privacy settings.
Methodology
Data Portal can be accessed for Connected Services-capable vehicles, starting from the model year 2013, through the “account settings” section of the Toyota and Lexus apps. If the user owns multiple Toyota or Lexus vehicles, they can select custom privacy and data sharing settings for each individual vehicle. If a consumer shares data with a third party, such as an insurance company, they can also see all of their data-sharing settings for these services within the application.
Zack Hicks, Executive Vice President & Chief Digital Officer, TMNA, said the company strictly adheres to the Automotive Consumer Privacy Protection Principles that was established in partnership with 19 other automakers. “Part of that commitment is transparency around the collection and processing of connected vehicle data. We are proud to further enhance our level of transparency with the release of Data Privacy Portal, giving consumers a clear sense of when and how their data is used,” he added.