宝马 车联网带来隐私风险

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.

宝马(BMW)警告说，高科技企业和广告商正在向汽车制造商施加压力，要让他们交出通过互联汽车收集的数据。这种局面凸显出汽车业正面临有关保护隐私的担忧，它们不得不在用户体验和隐私权之间仔细权衡。

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.

宝马公司主管营销的董事会成员伊恩•罗伯逊(Ian Robertson)表示，每辆走下该公司产品线的汽车都装有无线网络，可以生成关于该车位置、速度、加速度、甚至车上乘客的信息。

“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’.”

在底特律车展会场外，他告诉英国《金融时报》：“很多人都在跟我们说：‘把你们获取的数据都交给我们，我们能告诉你我们能用它做什么。’”他补充说，这么说的企业不仅包括广告公司，还包括那些“硅谷”公司。“对此，我们的回答是：‘不用了，谢谢。’”

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，大约三分之二的新车拥有能发送和接收数据的传感器和通信系统，从而令汽车制造商有可能更多地了解司机的用车方式。不过，这样的系统同样能够向保险公司和广告商提供客户的个人信息。

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.

宝马表示，该公司设置了防火墙，以保护那些有关汽车内部运转的关键数据。不过，只要存在数据传输，就会有人担心谁可能访问这些信息，他们会对这些信息做什么。

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)分析师亚当•乔纳斯(Adam Jonas)表示，这对汽车制造商来说是个“大问题”，他们“无一例外地想在这些信息上设置壁垒”。他说：“他们不想成为第一个降低隐私保护标准的公司，也不想成为第一家因为其汽车被黑客攻破而导致不良后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.”

在去年的消费电子展(Consumer Electronics Show)上，福特(Ford)曾因其营销主管的一句话而不得不十分尴尬地予以澄清。当时，时任该公司营销主管的吉姆•法利(Jim Farley)说：“我们知道每个违反交通法规的人。我们会在你违法的那一刻知道此事，因为我们在你的车里装了GPS接收装置。”他补充说：“顺便说一下，我们不会把数据交给任何人。”

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

后来，法利曾澄清说，福特不会未经许可跟踪任何人的状况。

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.

当代汽车收集的数据已不限于汽车的速度和开出的距离。为了向人们展示汽车制造商可能泄露的数据，罗伯逊表示，在宝马汽车的座椅上，安装着一个连接至安全气囊系统的的重力感应器，这个感应器令该车能知道车上是否坐着儿童。

“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.

罗伯逊表示：“有几家企业曾表示：‘我们很想获得这些数据，因为那样我们就能知道坐车的是成人还是儿童了。’”

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”.

他还说广告商还想知道引擎已运转的时间，从而令他们“能够从导航系统了解到，这辆车正要经过一家麦当劳(McDonald's)，而车已跑了三个小时，车上的孩子可能饿了。”