On 26th January 2016, the conference of the German data protection authorities and German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) agreed on a joint statement (PDF, in German) concerning aspects of data protection relating to the usage of smart cars.
According to the parties, smart cars and the proceeding digitalization in cars create advantages (safety and comfort) and facilitates car transport canada but also risks for the personal rights of individuals. The German authorities and car manufacturers agreed inter alia on the following aspects:

1. Personal data: During the use of modern cars, data is created permanently. Particularly by using additional information, this data created by smartcars can be attributed to the car owner (check out our website)or to the driver and be considered “personal data” in the sense of European data protection law. Data created during the usage of a vehicle is at least considered “personal data” within the meaning of the Federal Data Protection Act (Act), if it is linked to the vehicle identification number or the license plate. Continue reading →