A California Tesla owner filed a prospective class action lawsuit against the EV manufacturer, accusing it of violating its customers’ privacy.
On April 6, 2023, the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California revealed that groups of Tesla employees occasionally communicated extremely intrusive videos and photos taken by customers’ car cameras between 2019 and 2022 over an internal messaging system.
Henry Yeh, a resident of San Francisco and owner of a Model Y, filed the case. Which he claims that Teslas personnel had access to the pictures and videos for their “tasteless and tortious entertainment” and “the humiliation of those secretly recorded.”
Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney for Yeh, said: “As anyone would be, Mr. Yeh is outraged. Especially, at the idea that Tesla’s cameras can be used to violate his family’s privacy. Which the California Constitution strictly protects.” He adds, “Tesla should be held accountable for these intrusions and for misleading him and other Tesla owners about its inadequate privacy standards.”
According to the complaint, members of the potential class action would have just purchased or leased a Tesla vehicle. Meanwhile, the action of the Tesla employees has been deemed as “particularly heinous” and “highly offensive.”
On the other hand, A former worker noted that some of Tesla’s employees claimed to have observed customers “doing laundry and really intimate things.” Adding, “We could see their children.” Which, the complaint stated one of the most fundamental liberty rights that society recognizes is parents’ interest in their children’s privacy.
Ultimately, the lawsuit requests the court “recover actual and punitive damages” and “urge Tesla from engaging in its wrongful behavior, including violating the privacy of customers and others.”
