800,000 Volkswagen electric vehicles' GPS locations leaked from an unsecured Amazon cloud bucket. Not approximate locations — precise parking spots. German politicians, intelligence agents, and police officers among those exposed. VW knew where every car parked, every trip taken, every stop made. They stored it all in the cloud and forgot to lock the door. Volkswagen installed cheat software in 11 million cars to lie about emissions. Executives went to prison. $30 billion in fines. The biggest corporate fraud in automotive history. Now they ask you to trust them with your location data, driving habits, and vehicle telemetry. Fool me once — but VW has done this before, to 11 million people, systematically.
What they claim: VW privacy policy describes vehicle data collection as necessary for service delivery and safety
What we found: The Cariad data leak revealed VW collected terabytes of detailed driving data including exact GPS coordinates every time the engine started and stopped, battery charge patterns, and trip durations. For VW ID models, location data was precise to 10 centimetres. For Audi and Skoda, it was precise to 10 kilometres — but still linkable to individual owners.
What they claim: Volkswagen describes its connected vehicle platform as secure and privacy-respecting
What we found: In December 2024, a Der Spiegel investigation with the Chaos Computer Club revealed that Volkswagen's software subsidiary Cariad had exposed precise GPS location data for 800,000 electric vehicles — including VW, Audi, Seat, and Skoda — in an unsecured Amazon cloud storage bucket. The data included precise parking locations, trip histories, and could be linked to owners' names and contact details. Vehicles belonging to German politicians, intelligence service employees, and police officers were among those exposed.
What they claim: Volkswagen promotes trustworthy, transparent approach to customer data
What we found: Volkswagen has a history of systematic deception. Dieselgate (2015) revealed VW installed software in 11 million vehicles to cheat emissions tests — the biggest corporate fraud in automotive history. The company paid $30 billion in fines and settlements. Executives went to prison. The same company now asks customers to trust its connected vehicle data practices.