A detective investigating two automakers over possible breaches of privacy laws is the Australian Privacy Commissioner, who revealed that two previous cases were dropped because a ‘very low chance’ was there to be.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind revealed the investigations during a Senate estimates hearing on February 10, 2026, responding to a question from Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie.
paraphrasing, “We are investigating a number of different entities and we have open investigations. But we conducted further preliminary inquiries against two separate entities, but did not take them forward,” the commissioner said in a statement.
Investigations come after previous concerns here and abroad about data collection in cars with internet connections – often called ‘connected cars’ – and how is this information used, sold or even legally owned?
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It has its website that the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner – the formal name of Ms Kind’s department – is to “promote and maintain your rights to access government-held information and have your personal data protected”.
A spokesman did not name the car companies under investigation, nor mention that two brands whose investigations were previously dropped without prosecution.
The commissioner confirmed they were in Asia when asked where the automakers were investigating based, but did not name any countries.
In 2024, concerns over ‘spying’ vehicles saw then US President Joe Biden ban software and hardware from China and Russia in cars sold there, a move which has helped lock Chinese car brands out of the lucrative US market – second only to China in terms of the number of new cars sold each year.
Similarly, in 2018, the Morrison government in Australia banned Chinese brand Huawei from participating in the rollout of 5G infrastructure over ‘national security concerns’.
Doug Ford – the premier of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario – recently warned that there are risks to importing Chinese cars into his country.
“I call it the spy car that they’re bringing in,” he said, in remarks reported by Automotive News.
Ms Kind said at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in May 2025 that connected cars could access large amounts of personal information, with overcollection causing ‘significant privacy risks’ to people.
A university speech Ms Kind said ‘It is more likely for malicious or rogue actors to access and misuse that information because of the fact that so many data points are collected, connected cars provide as many opportunities for malware (or ad-hoc actors) to collect and use those details.
In 2024, Australia’s CHOICE magazine asked 10 of Australia’s best-selling vehicle brands to explain what data they collect, and what they do with it.
Some brands said they sold Australian motorists’ data such as voice data, location and other information to third parties, including advertisers.
The worst offenders sold data to a well-known artificial intelligence (AI) company in the US.
Dr Vanessa Teague told CHOICE after the report ‘What these car companies are doing is completely unacceptable – it should be illegal.
But none of these should be acceptable in our country, so we need to update the Privacy Act or enforce the privacy Act.’ These practices are good evidence that we have a right answer for this question ‘The fact is not required by any law enforcement practice and it has been recommended as an example on whether I am going to use such laws at all.
You don’t want them to be out; if you want some of these features, then go-in. All these other features should be illegal for many of them, such as . , ” and.
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