The huge volumes of data churned out by connected cars could be a gold mine for auto makers and their technology suppliers. But pooling that data poses a challenge for companies that are wary of violating privacy laws or sharing valuable proprietary information.
A data marketplace operated by digital-mapping company HERE Global B.V. started offering privacy services this month to appeal to connected-car manufacturers and suppliers that are concerned about violating Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The Amsterdam-based company introduced a service to anonymize data, stripping it of information that can identify an individual, and a blockchain-based tool to help companies manage customers’ consent to use their data. HERE, which was acquired by Volkswagen AG’s Audi, Daimler AG and BMW AG in 2015, creates and licenses digital maps for connected and self-driving vehicles.
HERE also operates a marketplace connecting around 75 companies that buy and sell anonymized data, including manufacturers, weather forecasters and retailers. Companies working on connected-car services can combine data from the platform to create products to improve traffic management and safety features, among other applications, said Jørgen Behrens, HERE’s chief product officer.
“The automotive industry is still discovering to a degree how we should approach the use and commercialization of data,” Mr. Behrens said.
Vehicle data marketplaces including Germany’s Caruso GmbH and Israel’s Otonomo Technologies Ltd. have signed up more companies as users in the past two to three years, said Jonathan Davenport, a senior principal analyst at Gartner Inc. Connected-car companies use multiple sources of data to create reliable services for weather and traffic alerts, he said.
A1 Telekom Austria , a Vienna-based telecom carrier that operates in several Southern and Eastern European countries, joined the HERE Marketplace this month. A1 plans to use the marketplace to sell its analysis of Austrian cellphone customers’ location data, said Mario Mayerthaler, the company’s head of innovation.
Analysis of how many people travel in certain areas at different times could be valuable for public transportation and automobile services, Mr. Mayerthaler said. The company uses location data from its customers and looks at its market-share figures to extrapolate the total number of people in an area, including noncustomers. The HERE Marketplace could help A1 understand if other companies want to buy its data through the platform and potentially find business customers in new markets, he said.
The HERE Marketplace allows companies to share anonymized data to build services for connected cars and other internet-based devices.
Photo: HERE
A1 started providing analysis of anonymized location data to the Austrian ministry of health last year, looking at people’s travel habits and whether they respected coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Some ski resorts are using its service to monitor congestion during the pandemic, Mr. Mayerthaler said.
To preserve individuals’ privacy, A1 only provides analysis of groups of at least 20 people. It assigns anonymized random numbers to each cellphone user and changes the codes every day, making it impossible to create a profile of anyone for longer than 24 hours, Mr. Mayerthaler said. Fewer than five people at A1 have access to the data center where information is anonymized, he added.
It took two years for A1 to develop a GDPR-compliant process for anonymizing data, but doing so helped A1 convince skeptics who questioned whether the company protected data sufficiently, Mr. Mayerthaler said. A1 also has GDPR approval from TÜV, a certification body in Germany and Austria.
“With European standards, there’s a lot of effort to crack the nut. But once you do it, it helps you show to the public you did it the right way,” Mr. Mayerthaler said.
The umbrella group of European privacy regulators recommends that car makers obtain drivers’ consent before transferring data to third parties and document how the data-sharing complies with the GDPR, according to guidelines published last year. Information that may be especially sensitive includes location data, biometric data from individuals and data that could indicate offenses or traffic violations, the group said.
“ The automotive industry is still discovering to a degree how we should approach the use and commercialization of data. ”
Car makers have been hesitant to share data that they consider sensitive. On the HERE Marketplace, an algorithm anonymizes vehicle-location data and verifies how well the method protects against particular threats, preventing anyone from identifying the vehicle’s origin, destination or full journey, said Giovanni Lanfranchi, the company’s chief technology officer. HERE says its marketplace complies with the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act, which took effect last year.
As well as integrating anonymization technology in its own platform, HERE provides companies with information on techniques for anonymizing data, Mr. Lanfranchi said.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, a Brussels-based lobby group whose members include BMW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, has promoted the use of a protected remote server for manufacturers to securely share data with other companies, such as technology or components suppliers.
Daimler sends car data to a server where third parties such as app developers or repair workshops can access it, but only if the driver consents to the data being used for a specific purpose, a spokeswoman for the company said. The manufacturer wants to make its data accessible to other companies “to build a convenient ecosystem around the car for our customers and best solutions to handle data in a responsible and dependable way,” she said.
Write to Catherine Stupp at [email protected]
