Mercedes caught up in privacy storm over car trackers

From edition.cnn.com

Mercedes

London (CNN Business)Mercedes-Benz is using location sensors to track and repossess vehicles in the United Kingdom when drivers fall behind on payments, raising privacy concerns and leading one prominent politician to call for a government investigation.Location sensors are fitted to most new vehicles in Europe, and used in the event of a crash. But the German luxury brand has at times activated trackers to help it find and repossess cars.A spokeswoman for Mercedes, which is owned by Daimler (DDAIF), told CNN Business that drivers agree to tracking when they sign financing agreements with the carmaker, and that action is taken to locate a car only if the terms of the contract are breached by customers.”This repossession process is used in a few exceptional cases and only as a last resort, when customers default or breach their finance agreement and repeatedly fail requests to return their vehicle,” the spokeswoman said. “We also want to emphasize that this does not mean constant tracking.”

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