Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Tesla Over Privacy Violation Plaint: Report

A California Tesla owner has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that Tesla's cameras can be used to violate privacy.

A group of Tesla employees allegedly privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ cameras between 2019 and 2022.

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Electric carmaker Tesla has been sued for violating the privacy of customers in California, US. A Tesla owner in California filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Tesla employees "were able to access the images and videos for their 'tasteless and tortious entertainment' and 'the humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded'."

The prospective class action lawsuit came after an earlier report by Reuters. The report alleged that groups of Tesla employees privately shared highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ cameras between 2019 and 2022. It was circulated via an internal messaging system. 

Henry Yeh in his case claimed that Tesla personnel had access to the pictures and videos.

"Like anyone would be, Mr Yeh was outraged at the idea that Tesla's cameras can be used to violate his family's privacy, which the California Constitution scrupulously protects. Tesla needs to be held accountable for these invasions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners,"  Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney representing Yeh, told Reuters.

The complaint also said that it is being filed "against Tesla on behalf of himself, similarly-situated class members, and the general public."

The prospective class would include individuals who owned or leased a Tesla within the past four years, it added. 

Citing a former employee, the news agency had reported that some Tesla employees could see customers "doing laundry and really intimate things".

Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked.

According to the report, shared videos also contain crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area, hitting a child riding a bike. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, via private chats.