寶馬 車聯網帶來隱私風險

Technology companies and advertisers are putting pressure on carmakers to pass on data collected by connected cars, BMW has warned, highlighting the concerns the automotive industry faces as it treads a fine line between performance and privacy.

寶馬(BMW)警告說，高科技企業和廣告商正在向汽車製造商施加壓力，要讓他們交出通過互聯汽車收集的數據。這種局面凸顯出汽車業正面臨有關保護隱私的擔憂，它們不得不在用戶體驗和隱私權之間仔細權衡。

Ian Robertson, the German manufacturer’s board member for sales and marketing, said that every car rolling off its production lines had a wireless network that could yield information about location, speed, acceleration and even the occupants of the car.

寶馬公司主管營銷的董事會成員伊恩•羅伯遜(Ian Robertson)表示，每輛走下該公司產品線的汽車都裝有無線網絡，可以生成關於該車位置、速度、加速度、甚至車上乘客的信息。

“There’s plenty of people out there saying: ‘give us all the data you’ve got and we can tell you what we can do with it’,” he told the Financial Times on the sidelines of the Detroit motor show, adding that this included “Silicon Valley” companies, as well as advertising groups. “And we’re saying: ‘No thank you’.”

在底特律車展會場外，他告訴英國《金融時報》：“很多人都在跟我們說：‘把你們獲取的數據都交給我們，我們能告訴你我們能用它做什麼。’”他補充說，這麼說的企業不僅包括廣告公司，還包括那些“硅谷”公司。“對此，我們的回答是：‘不用了，謝謝。’”

About two-thirds of today’s new cars have sensors and communications systems that send and receive data, offering potential for carmakers to find out more about how drivers use their vehicles. But the systems could also provide insurers and advertisers with personal information about customers.

如今，大約三分之二的新車擁有能發送和接收數據的傳感器和通信系統，從而令汽車製造商有可能更多地瞭解司機的用車方式。不過，這樣的系統同樣能夠向保險公司和廣告商提供客戶的個人信息。

BMW said it had a firewall in place to protect crucial data about the internal running of the car. But any transmission of data raises concerns about who might access that information — and what they might do with it.

寶馬錶示，該公司設置了防火牆，以保護那些有關汽車內部運轉的關鍵數據。不過，只要存在數據傳輸，就會有人擔心誰可能訪問這些信息，他們會對這些信息做什麼。

Adam Jonas, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said it was a “major issue” for carmakers, which “ unanimously want to create a barrier on this information”. He said: “They don’t want to be the first one to let [their] guard down on information privacy or to become the first company to have a car hacked with bad consequences and image.”

摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)分析師亞當•喬納斯(Adam Jonas)表示，這對汽車製造商來說是個“大問題”，他們“無一例外地想在這些信息上設置壁壘”。他說：“他們不想成爲第一個降低隱私保護標準的公司，也不想成爲第一家因爲其汽車被黑客攻破而導致不良後果和流出非法照片的公司。”

Ford was forced into an embarrassing retraction at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas after Jim Farley, then head of marketing at the US carmaker, said: “We know everyone who breaks the law. We know exactly when you do it because we have a GPS sensor in your car.” He added: “By the way, we don’t supply that data to anyone.”

在去年的消費電子展(Consumer Electronics Show)上，福特(Ford)曾因其營銷主管的一句話而不得不十分尷尬地予以澄清。當時，時任該公司營銷主管的吉姆•法利(Jim Farley)說：“我們知道每個違反交通法規的人。我們會在你違法的那一刻知道此事，因爲我們在你的車裏裝了GPS接收裝置。”他補充說：“順便說一下，我們不會把數據交給任何人。”

Mr Farley later clarified that the company did not track anyone without their permission.

後來，法利曾澄清說，福特不會未經許可跟蹤任何人的狀況。

The scale of the data collected by modern vehicles goes beyond how fast or far cars have driven. In an illustration of the potential data that could be surrendered by carmakers, Mr Robertson said that BMW cars knew whether a child was on board, based on weight sensors in the seats linked to the airbag system.

當代汽車收集的數據已不限於汽車的速度和開出的距離。爲了向人們展示汽車製造商可能泄露的數據，羅伯遜表示，在寶馬汽車的座椅上，安裝着一個連接至安全氣囊系統的的重力感應器，這個感應器令該車能知道車上是否坐着兒童。

“Several companies have said: ‘We’d like to know that data because then we will know whether it’s an adult or a child sitting in the car’,” said Mr Robertson.

羅伯遜表示：“有幾家企業曾表示：‘我們很想獲得這些數據，因爲那樣我們就能知道坐車的是成人還是兒童了。’”

He said that advertisers also wanted to know how long the engine has been running so that they could tell “from the navigation system, they’re about to pass a McDonald’s, the car’s been running for three hours and the child’s probably hungry”.

他還說廣告商還想知道引擎已運轉的時間，從而令他們“能夠從導航系統瞭解到，這輛車正要經過一家麥當勞(McDonald's)，而車已跑了三個小時，車上的孩子可能餓了。”