Tesla faces prospect of class action suit amid privacy concerns
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A Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) owner in California has sued the Austin-based automaker in a prospective class action lawsuit amid allegations that the company routinely violated customer privacy with its cameras. 
On Thursday, a special report from Reuters indicated that recordings of customers, sometimes in compromising situations, were shared internally among staff between 2019 and 2022. Per the report, employees made images taken from customer vehicles into memes, saw inside peopleâs garages, and shared footage of customer crashes.
Following that report, a San Francisco resident and Tesla owner Henry Yeh filed a suit against the company for capture of âhighly-invasive videos and images of the carsâ owners, which Tesla employees were able to accessânot for the stated purposes of communication, fulfillment of services, and enhancement of Tesla vehicle driving systemsâbut for the tasteless and tortious entertainment of Tesla employees, and perhaps those outside the company, and the
humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded.â
The suit adds that privacy safeguards were insufficient. The action with the plaintiff presenting the claim âon behalf of himself, similarly-situated Class Members, and the general public to enjoin Tesla from engaging in its wrongful behavior, including violating the privacy of customers and others, and to recover actual and punitive damages.â Specific damages sought were not outlined, only that over $5M is sought by the plaintiff.
âLike 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," Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney representing Yeh, said in a statement to Reuters. âTesla needs to be held accountable for these invasions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners.â
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) ticked about 2% lower in premarket trading on Monday.
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