How much is your car tracking you? Polk County man suing Toyota alleges privacy violations – wtsp.com
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TAMPA, Fla. — A Polk County man suing Toyota over alleged privacy violations says he is still pushing for a class action lawsuit, despite a judge’s recent ruling that the case must go to arbitration.
“If it’s not actually handled and litigated right now, it can only get worse,” said Phil Siefke.
Siefke, in 2025, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court, accusing Toyota and its affiliate company, Connected Analytic Services, of collecting and selling private information to third parties like Progressive Insurance – without permission.
He’s not just pointing out tracking of speed and location, but everything down to how hard you braked, your seatbelt status, even image and voice data.
“Well, let’s put it this way: If your insurance company has access to your data that your local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have to have a warrant to get, that should automatically throw a red flag up to any consumer,” he said.
Siefke said after buying his 2021 Toyota Rav 4, he went to sign up for insurance, and found Progressive already had a comprehensive driving profile, including a “hard brake” the day before.
“Toyota actually gathers the data from the telemetry that’s in my vehicle — meaning the camera, the speedometer, the time, the GPS, everything that the car has a capability of accumulating and gathers that data, and then they transfer that to their division — Connected Analytics, which then sells it to any third party that’s willing to buy it. In this case, Progressive,” he said.
10 Investigates reached out to all the parties named in the lawsuit for comment on these claims.
Progressive said it does not comment on litigation. Toyota never responded, but the automaker alleges in court records that Siefke “activated connected services for his vehicle,” and accepted Toyota’s connected services terms of use, which contained an arbitration provision and class action waiver.
Records go on to say when he accepted the Toyota app’s terms of use in March 2021 and March 2024, he would have seen a screen disclosing that by hitting “accept” he agreed that on a “regular and continuous basis, your vehicle wirelessly transmits location, driving and vehicle health data to Toyota and its affiliates in order to deliver Connected Services – and for internal research, development and data analysis.”
Attorney John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan is representing Siefke. “Data is the new oil,” he said. “The largest companies on the face of the Earth don’t make anything. They take consumer data, and they use it for profit.”
Yanchunis says if successful, this class action suit would be a win for consumers, but only a first step. “There’s a tremendous amount of absence of legislation to protect consumer privacy,” he said.
If the potential of car tracking concerns you, there are steps you can take to be more informed. If you enter your vin number here, a group called “Privacy4Cars” will generate a free report on what data your car might be tracking.
“You need to make sure and verify your privacy settings… because if you have agreed to let them share them — and apparently in my situation, even if you haven’t agreed — they are reselling that data to insurance carriers,” said Siefke. “And if you don’t think that’s impacting your rates, then yes, it very good chance that it is.”
Siefke says he hasn’t had a ticket since 2017, and he hasn’t had any accidents for even longer. “And yet my insurance rates are as high as what most people, if not higher, would pay for having a DUI.”
The Consumer Federation of America says there are benefits to telematics, like lowering costs for those deemed good drivers, and could be a more “fairer assessment of risk than the current pricing models that penalize customers for their marital status, job title, credit score and other socioeconomic factors.” The group also acknowledged concerns with privacy and exaggerated savings claims.
As for what Siefke hopes will come out of his lawsuit, he said he simply wants people’s privacy protected. “I’m going to deviate a second to give you a bit of an example. Everybody has a device sitting beside their bed right now, whether it be their phone, whether it be… the Alexa or Siri or whomever,” he said. “If they collected that same data and it was readily available, they now know everything about you. And I ask you, would you let me put a camera with sound inside your bedroom?”
Siefke says allowing companies to track so much data could set a dangerous precedent.
“Be careful who might end up with that data at some point. You know, you put it out there, somebody is going to claim it’s their First Amendment right to sell it, that it’s open to the public,” he said. “My privacy, again, is not open to your public. That’s my privacy, my constitutional right to have a private life. Don’t violate it.”
While a judge ruled in December that the case must go to arbitration, Siefke says he’s working with his team to see if there are any other options for the class action case to proceed to potentially benefit consumers.
Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with 10 Tampa Bay News. Like her on Facebook and follow her on X. You can also email her at emorrow@10tampabay.com.
source
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
Next up in 5
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TAMPA, Fla. — A Polk County man suing Toyota over alleged privacy violations says he is still pushing for a class action lawsuit, despite a judge’s recent ruling that the case must go to arbitration.
“If it’s not actually handled and litigated right now, it can only get worse,” said Phil Siefke.
Siefke, in 2025, filed a class action lawsuit in federal court, accusing Toyota and its affiliate company, Connected Analytic Services, of collecting and selling private information to third parties like Progressive Insurance – without permission.
He’s not just pointing out tracking of speed and location, but everything down to how hard you braked, your seatbelt status, even image and voice data.
“Well, let’s put it this way: If your insurance company has access to your data that your local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have to have a warrant to get, that should automatically throw a red flag up to any consumer,” he said.
Siefke said after buying his 2021 Toyota Rav 4, he went to sign up for insurance, and found Progressive already had a comprehensive driving profile, including a “hard brake” the day before.
“Toyota actually gathers the data from the telemetry that’s in my vehicle — meaning the camera, the speedometer, the time, the GPS, everything that the car has a capability of accumulating and gathers that data, and then they transfer that to their division — Connected Analytics, which then sells it to any third party that’s willing to buy it. In this case, Progressive,” he said.
10 Investigates reached out to all the parties named in the lawsuit for comment on these claims.
Progressive said it does not comment on litigation. Toyota never responded, but the automaker alleges in court records that Siefke “activated connected services for his vehicle,” and accepted Toyota’s connected services terms of use, which contained an arbitration provision and class action waiver.
Records go on to say when he accepted the Toyota app’s terms of use in March 2021 and March 2024, he would have seen a screen disclosing that by hitting “accept” he agreed that on a “regular and continuous basis, your vehicle wirelessly transmits location, driving and vehicle health data to Toyota and its affiliates in order to deliver Connected Services – and for internal research, development and data analysis.”
Attorney John Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan is representing Siefke. “Data is the new oil,” he said. “The largest companies on the face of the Earth don’t make anything. They take consumer data, and they use it for profit.”
Yanchunis says if successful, this class action suit would be a win for consumers, but only a first step. “There’s a tremendous amount of absence of legislation to protect consumer privacy,” he said.
If the potential of car tracking concerns you, there are steps you can take to be more informed. If you enter your vin number here, a group called “Privacy4Cars” will generate a free report on what data your car might be tracking.
“You need to make sure and verify your privacy settings… because if you have agreed to let them share them — and apparently in my situation, even if you haven’t agreed — they are reselling that data to insurance carriers,” said Siefke. “And if you don’t think that’s impacting your rates, then yes, it very good chance that it is.”
Siefke says he hasn’t had a ticket since 2017, and he hasn’t had any accidents for even longer. “And yet my insurance rates are as high as what most people, if not higher, would pay for having a DUI.”
The Consumer Federation of America says there are benefits to telematics, like lowering costs for those deemed good drivers, and could be a more “fairer assessment of risk than the current pricing models that penalize customers for their marital status, job title, credit score and other socioeconomic factors.” The group also acknowledged concerns with privacy and exaggerated savings claims.
As for what Siefke hopes will come out of his lawsuit, he said he simply wants people’s privacy protected. “I’m going to deviate a second to give you a bit of an example. Everybody has a device sitting beside their bed right now, whether it be their phone, whether it be… the Alexa or Siri or whomever,” he said. “If they collected that same data and it was readily available, they now know everything about you. And I ask you, would you let me put a camera with sound inside your bedroom?”
Siefke says allowing companies to track so much data could set a dangerous precedent.
“Be careful who might end up with that data at some point. You know, you put it out there, somebody is going to claim it’s their First Amendment right to sell it, that it’s open to the public,” he said. “My privacy, again, is not open to your public. That’s my privacy, my constitutional right to have a private life. Don’t violate it.”
While a judge ruled in December that the case must go to arbitration, Siefke says he’s working with his team to see if there are any other options for the class action case to proceed to potentially benefit consumers.
Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with 10 Tampa Bay News. Like her on Facebook and follow her on X. You can also email her at emorrow@10tampabay.com.
source
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
