Driverless vehicles will have the capacity to source vast amounts of data about passengers through cameras, audio files and location tracking, leaving them exposed to commercial exploitation, researcher Nicholas Camac says.

“It could track all your movements: where you go, who you meet, even what you purchase and where you shop,” Mr Camac said after addressing the second International Driverless Vehicles Summit in Adelaide.

“Driverless vehicle software has the capacity to do it all, so social acceptance of the technology will depend on how it is used, and what privacy safeguards are put in place.

“We don’t yet know the business models of the companies involved, but transparency with users regarding the handling of their personal information will be critical.”

The Flinders University honours graduate says while the Privacy Act imposes transparency obligations on organisations collecting personal information, these are often interpreted broadly.

“It needs to be made clear by companies collecting the data that people’s privacy is going to be protected from the beginning of the information life cycle,” he said.

Mr Camac believes the best approach is to “tackle the issue through technical privacy-by-design methods aimed at improving data minimisation”. He hopes his research triggers wider legal discussion about data collection software and privacy.

“Privacy issues often tend to be forgotten or neglected in the discussion about these vehicles, but this is what we should be doing now, long before the vehicles are introduced, so measures can be put in place to ensure users are secure in the knowledge their privacy is being protected.”