Tesla's Latest Information Leak Is A Disaster

Tesla has previously been accused of violating privacy policies, with the Chinese alleging EVs such as the Model X posed a security risk to government and military employees. Xi Jinping's government restricted the use of the brand's vehicles, as the camera system can record and track locations.

CEO Elon Musk has vehemently denied this. "There's a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information. If Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down." The latest string of privacy concerns may not be as easy to dismiss.

After making a surprising discovery, a Reddit user took to the platform to disclose the privacy violation. The secondhand Tesla owner explains that when looking through the Tesla App, he unearthed sensitive information about the previous owner: "His name, address, account number and previous payment history was all there."

This is concerning for several reasons, not least the possibility of fraud or identity theft. What's more, if it occurred with one Tesla App user, many more individuals likely have their information floating around on the app. The privacy breach can also lead to unsavory situations. "It wasn't hard to pop his name into Google and find his Instagram [account]."

While the intentions of this Reddit user may have been pure, the information may fall into the hands of a more devious individual next time round. The post was later edited to say the information was since removed. "Hopefully it was a system-wide change," they write.

But the issue seems to be widespread: one ex-Tesla owner replied that after he sold his EV, the new owner continued to use the Spotify account synched to the car. "I finally changed my Spotify password to kill the persistent sync."