In the car or with TikTok, Americans protect their privacy

Dim 19/01/2025   — The French prefer to restrict freedom of thought.

It’s a subject that doesn’t make enough news, probably due to its complexity, and the difficulty in obtaining reliable information. Modern cars record more and more data, and because they are connected, they transmit it to… We don’t know who. This goes to a remote server, not necessarily in the country, and the motorist cannot control who has access to it, much less for what purpose. The worst cars in this area are probably Teslas, with cameras capable of filming other road users, passers-by, infrastructure… China was the first to sound the alarm, when it banned traffic Teslas near its military sites. The Americans have just responded by looking much broader, with a ban on any Chinese (or Russian, but that doesn’t exist) connected car, or any connected car with Chinese components, regardless of whether they are material, or software.

It is exactly for the same reasons that the United States is asking that the Tiktok application come under American control, so that the personal data of American citizens who use it never leave the borders of their country.

In France, politicians don’t care about the exploitation that owners of connected services can do. No leading political actor has ever raised this issue. But the fact that application Some say they are leaving this network, others say it should be banned altogether.

Here we see a fundamental difference between the 2 countries…

Laurent J. Masson

Section(s) and keyword(s): non-manufacturer; technology