Washington Judge Rules That Car Manufacturers Can Legally Store People’s Texts and Phone Calls Without Getting Explicit Permissio
Jose Nino
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A federal judge recently ruled against restoring a class action lawsuit accusing four major car companies of violating privacy protections in Washington state. The companies were alleged to have illegally acquired and stored private text messages and call records of customers who use the infotainment systems built in their cars.
The judge, who is based in Seattle, reached the conclusion that this activity did not represent an unauthorized privacy violation per state regulations.
The court effectively ruled in favor of car manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors, who are all defendants in five concurrent class action lawsuits concerning this issue. A similar case against Ford had been previously thrown out after an appeal.
In the recent ruling, the appellate judge proclaimed that the secret capture and logging of mobile phone data did not infringe on the provisions of the Washington Privacy Act. Per the act, in order to be classified as a vulnerable plaintiff, one must show a threat to “his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation.”
The private sector in the US has largely gone off the rails. In many respects it’s beginning to emulate the very federal government in its commitment to violate individual freedoms and advance the managerial regime’s behavioral control agenda. Such forces have to be stopped at all costs.
Just because they’re private actors, does not give them the right to abuse our liberties.
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