Original article, Paywalled, but they let you read 4: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/06/tesla-employees-reportedly-shared-sensitive-photos-of-owners-taken-by-car-cameras
On Thu, Apr 6, 2023 at 10:44 AM Rod Hower via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > Special Report: Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer > cars > Private camera recordings, captured by cars, were shared in chat rooms: > ex-workersCirculated clips included one of child being hit by car: > ex-employeesTesla says recordings made by vehicle cameras ‘remain > anonymous’One video showed submersible vehicle from James Bond film, owned > by Elon MuskLONDON/SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc assures its > millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be > enormously important to us.” The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist > driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to > protect your privacy.” > But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via > an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images > recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with > nine former employees. > Advertisement · Scroll to continueSome of the recordings caught Tesla > customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of > a man approaching a vehicle completely naked. > Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 > showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child > riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one > direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in > San Mateo, California, via private one-on-one chats, “like wildfire,” the > ex-employee said. > Other images were more mundane, such as pictures of dogs and funny road > signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing > captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats. While > some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen > by scores of them, according to several ex-employees. > Tesla states in its online “Customer Privacy Notice” that its “camera > recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle.” But > seven former employees told Reuters the computer program they used at work > could show the location of recordings – which potentially could reveal > where a Tesla owner lived. > One ex-employee also said that some recordings appeared to have been made > when cars were parked and turned off. Several years ago, Tesla would > receive video recordings from its vehicles even when they were off, if > owners gave consent. It has since stopped doing so. > “We could see inside people's garages and their private properties,” said > another former employee. “Let's say that a Tesla customer had something in > their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds > of things.” > Tesla didn't respond to detailed questions sent to the company for this > report. > About three years ago, some employees stumbled upon and shared a video of > a unique submersible vehicle parked inside a garage, according to two > people who viewed it. Nicknamed “Wet Nellie,” the white Lotus Esprit sub > had been featured in the 1977 James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me.” > The vehicle’s owner: Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who had bought it > for about $968,000 at an auction in 2013. It is not clear whether Musk was > aware of the video or that it had been shared. > Musk didn’t respond to a request for comment. > To report this story, Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla > employees who had worked at the company over the past nine years and were > involved in developing its self-driving system. More than a dozen agreed to > answer questions, all speaking on condition of anonymity. > Reuters wasn’t able to obtain any of the shared videos or images, which > ex-employees said they hadn’t kept. The news agency also wasn’t able to > determine if the practice of sharing recordings, which occurred within some > parts of Tesla as recently as last year, continues today or how widespread > it was. Some former employees contacted said the only sharing they observed > was for legitimate work purposes, such as seeking assistance from > colleagues or supervisors. > LABELING PEDESTRIANS AND STREET SIGNSThe sharing of sensitive videos > illustrates one of the less-noted features of artificial intelligence > systems: They often require armies of human beings to help train machines > to learn automated tasks such as driving. > Since about 2016, Tesla has employed hundreds of people in Africa and > later the United States to label images to help its cars learn how to > recognize pedestrians, street signs, construction vehicles, garage doors > and other objects encountered on the road or at customers’ houses. To > accomplish that, data labelers were given access to thousands of videos or > images recorded by car cameras that they would view and identify objects. > Tesla increasingly has been automating the process, and shut down a > data-labeling hub last year in San Mateo, California. But it continues to > employ hundreds of data labelers in Buffalo, New York. In February, Tesla > said the staff there had grown 54% over the previous six months to 675. > Two ex-employees said they weren’t bothered by the sharing of images, > saying that customers had given their consent or that people long ago had > given up any reasonable expectation of keeping personal data private. Three > others, however, said they were troubled by it. > “It was a breach of privacy, to be honest. And I always joked that I would > never buy a Tesla after seeing how they treated some of these people,” said > one former employee. > Another said: “I’m bothered by it because the people who buy the car, I > don't think they know that their privacy is, like, not respected … We could > see them doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids.” > One former employee saw nothing wrong with sharing images, but described a > function that allowed data labelers to view the location of recordings on > Google Maps as a “massive invasion of privacy.” > David Choffnes, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy > Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, called sharing of sensitive > videos and images by Tesla employees “morally reprehensible.” > “Any normal human being would be appalled by this,” he said. He noted that > circulating sensitive and personal content could be construed as a > violation of Tesla’s own privacy policy — potentially resulting in > intervention by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which enforces federal > laws relating to consumers’ privacy. > A spokesperson for the FTC said it doesn’t comment on individual companies > or their conduct. > To develop self-driving car technology, Tesla collects a vast trove of > data from its global fleet of several million vehicles. The company > requires car owners to grant permission on the cars’ touchscreens before > Tesla collects their vehicles’ data. “Your Data Belongs to You,” states > Tesla’s website. > In its Customer Privacy Notice, Tesla explains that if a customer agrees > to share data, “your vehicle may collect the data and make it available to > Tesla for analysis. This analysis helps Tesla improve its products, > features, and diagnose problems quicker.” It also states that the data may > include “short video clips or images,” but isn’t linked to a customer’s > account or vehicle identification number, “and does not identify you > personally.” > Carlo Piltz, a data privacy lawyer in Germany, told Reuters it would be > difficult to find a legal justification under Europe’s data protection and > privacy law for vehicle recordings to be circulated internally when it has > “nothing to do with the provision of a safe or secure car or the > functionality” of Tesla's self-driving system. > In recent years, Tesla’s car-camera system has drawn controversy. In > China, some government compounds and residential neighborhoods have banned > Teslas because of concerns about its cameras. In response, Musk said in a > virtual talk at a Chinese forum in 2021: “If Tesla used cars to spy in > China or anywhere, we will get shut down.” > Elsewhere, regulators have scrutinized the Tesla system over potential > privacy violations. But the privacy cases have tended to focus not on the > rights of Tesla owners but of passers-by unaware that they might be being > recorded by parked Tesla vehicles. > In February, the Dutch Data Protection Authority, or DPA, said it had > concluded an investigation of Tesla over possible privacy violations > regarding “Sentry Mode,” a feature designed to record any suspicious > activity when a car is parked and alert the owner. > “People who walked by these vehicles were filmed without knowing it. And > the owners of the Teslas could go back and look at these images,” said DPA > board member Katja Mur in a statement. “If a person parked one of these > vehicles in front of someone’s window, they could spy inside and see > everything the other person was doing. That is a serious violation of > privacy.” > The watchdog determined it wasn’t Tesla, but the vehicles’ owners, who > were legally responsible for their cars’ recordings. It said it decided not > to fine the company after Tesla said it had made several changes to Sentry > Mode, including having a vehicle’s headlights pulse to inform passers-by > that they may be being recorded. > A DPA spokesperson declined to comment on Reuters findings, but said in an > email: “Personal data must be used for a specific purpose, and sensitive > personal data must be protected.” > REPLACING HUMAN DRIVERS > Tesla calls its automated driving system Autopilot. Introduced in 2015, > the system included such advanced features as allowing drivers to change > lanes by tapping a turn signal and parallel parking on command. To make the > system work, Tesla initially installed sonar sensors, radar and a single > front-facing camera at the top of the windshield. A subsequent version, > introduced in 2016, included eight cameras all around the car to collect > more data and offer more capabilities. > Musk’s future vision is eventually to offer a “Full Self-Driving” mode > that would replace a human driver. Tesla began rolling out an experimental > version of that mode in October 2020. Although it requires drivers to keep > their hands on the wheel, it currently offers such features as the ability > to slow a car down automatically when it approaches stop signs or traffic > lights. > Tesla's Autopilot system > TESLAThis excerpt from the owner’s manual for the Tesla Model X explains > the car’s Autopilot system, including the cameras that record video of the > vehicle’s surroundings. Reuters found that Tesla employees shared clips > that captured sensitive and embarrassing personal moments.In February, > Tesla recalled more than 362,000 U.S. vehicles to update their Full > Self-Driving software after the National Highway Traffic Safety > Administration said it could allow vehicles to exceed speed limits and > potentially cause crashes at intersections. > As with many artificial-intelligence projects, to develop Autopilot, Tesla > hired data labelers to identify objects in images and videos to teach the > system how to respond when the vehicle was on the road or parked. > Tesla initially outsourced data labeling to a San Francisco-based > non-profit then known as Samasource, people familiar with the matter told > Reuters. The organization had an office in Nairobi, Kenya, and specialized > in offering training and employment opportunities to disadvantaged women > and youth. > In 2016, Samasource was providing about 400 workers there for Tesla, up > from about an initial 20, according to a person familiar with the matter. > By 2019, however, Tesla was no longer satisfied with the work of > Samasource’s data labelers. At an event called Tesla AI Day in 2021, Andrej > Karpathy, then senior director of AI at Tesla, said: “Unfortunately, we > found very quickly that working with a third party to get data sets for > something this critical was just not going to cut it … Honestly the quality > was not amazing.” > A former Tesla emp loyee said of the Samasource labelers: “They would > highlight fi re hydrants as pedestrians … They would miss objects all the > time. Their skill level to draw boxes was very low.” > Samasource, now called Sama, declined to comment on its work for Tesla. > Tesla decided to bring data labeling in-house. “Over time, we’ve grown to > more than a 1,000-person data labeling (organization) that is full of > professional labelers who are working very closely with the engineers,” > Karpathy said in his August 2021 presentation. > Karpathy didn’t respond to requests for comment. > Tesla’s own data labelers initially worked in the San Francisco Bay area, > including the office in San Mateo. Groups of data labelers were assigned a > variety of different tasks, including labeling street lane lines or > emergency vehicles, ex-employees said. > At one point, Teslas on Autopilot were having difficulty backing out of > garages and would get confused when encountering shadows or objects such as > garden hoses. So some data labelers were asked to identify objects in > videos recorded inside garages. The problem eventually was solved. > In interviews, two former employees said in their normal work duties they > were sometimes asked to view images of customers in and around their homes, > including inside garages. > “I sometimes wondered if these people know that we're seeing that,” said > one. > “I saw some scandalous stuff sometimes, you know, like I did see scenes of > intimacy but not nudity,” said another. “And there was just definitely a > lot of stuff that like, I wouldn't want anybody to see about my life.” > As an example, this person recalled seeing “embarrassing objects,” such as > “certain pieces of laundry, certain sexual wellness items … and just > private scenes of life that we really were privy to because the car was > charging.” > MEMES IN THE SAN MATEO OFFICE > Tesla staffed its San Mateo office with mostly young workers, in their 20s > and early 30s, who brought with them a culture that prized entertaining > memes and viral online content. Former staffers described a free-wheeling > atmosphere in chat rooms with workers exchanging jokes about images they > viewed while labeling. > According to several ex-employees, some labelers shared screenshots, > sometimes marked up using Adobe Photoshop, in private group chats on > Mattermost, Tesla’s internal messaging system. There they would attract > responses from other workers and managers. Participants would also add > their own marked-up images, jokes or emojis to keep the conversation going. > Some of the emojis were custom-created to reference office inside jokes, > several ex-employees said. > One former labeler described sharing images as a way to “break the > monotony.” Another described how the sharing won admiration from peers. > “If you saw something cool that would get a reaction, you post it, right, > and then later, on break, people would come up to you and say, ‘Oh, I saw > what you posted. That was funny,’” said this former labeler. “People who > got promoted to lead positions shared a lot of these funny items and gained > notoriety for being funny.” > Some of the shared content resembled memes on the internet. There were > dogs, interesting cars, and clips of people recorded by Tesla cameras > tripping and falling. There was also disturbing content, such as someone > being dragged into a car seemingly against their will, said one ex-employee. > Video clips of crashes involving Teslas were also sometimes shared in > private chats on Mattermost, several former employees said. Those included > examples of people driving badly or collisions involving people struck > while riding bikes – such as the one with the child – or a motorcycle. Some > data labelers would rewind such clips and play them in slow motion. > At times, Tesla managers would crack down on inappropriate sharing of > images on public Mattermost channels since they claimed the practice > violated company policy. Still, screenshots and memes based on them > continued to circulate through private chats on the platform, several > ex-employees said. Workers shared them one-on-one or in small groups as > recently as the middle of last year. > One of the perks of working for Tesla as a data labeler in San Mateo was > the chance to win a prize – use of a company car for a day or two, > according to two former employees. > But some of the lucky winners became paranoid when driving the electric > cars. > “Knowing how much data those vehicles are capable of collecting definitely > made folks nervous," one ex-employee said. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20230406/babe977c/attachment.htm > > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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