Volkswagen Car-Net / Audi connect
Volkswagen Group · Connected Car
✓ Reviewed
Index
Car-Net and Audi connect tie your VW/Audi to a cloud account and continuously report precise GPS position, ignition on/off events, trip history, driving behavior, voice commands, and vehicle health, linked to your name, email, phone and home address. VW Group's own privacy terms permit sharing personal data with affiliates and partners for marketing, and the company was named among automakers that hand location data to police without requiring a warrant. What you gain in remote lock/locate/climate features you pay for with a persistent, identity-linked record of everywhere the car goes.
Why this rating
Policy permits marketing sharing and broad affiliate/partner disclosure (sells-data, broker-disclosure), collects precise location and voice (sensitive-collection), offers no universal US deletion right (no-deletion-right), and Wyden/Markey found VW discloses location to police without a warrant (law-enforcement-loose). Evidence: VW's Cariad unit left precise location of ~800,000 EVs exposed on an open cloud bucket for months in 2024 (major-breach + security-negligence), and VW was named in the Senate probe on warrantless location disclosure (law-enforcement-pipeline); Mozilla rated the whole car category worst-ever for privacy (ngo-review).
What it is
- Microphone
- GPS / location
- Requires a cloud account
- Manufacturer
- Volkswagen Group
- Category
- Connected Car
- Model years
- 2020-present
- Market status
- Current
- Companion app
- myVW / myAudi
The evidence 3
Independent research, regulatory action, lawsuits, breaches and journalism about this device — the "what actually happens" axis. Each links to its source.
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VW software unit Cariad left precise geolocation and personal contact data for ~800,000 VW/Audi/SEAT/Skoda EVs unprotected on a misconfigured Amazon cloud store for months, surfaced by the Chaos Computer Club and Der Spiegel.
Why it matters here: Directly exposed Car-Net/Audi connect telematics data (location, contact details) for the exact service under review.
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Wyden and Markey found several automakers, including Volkswagen, disclose customer location data to government on a mere subpoena rather than a warrant, and asked the FTC to investigate.
Why it matters here: VW was specifically named as providing Car-Net/Audi connect location data to law enforcement without a warrant.
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Mozilla flunked all 25 car brands reviewed, including Volkswagen and Audi, for over-collection and selling/sharing personal data.
Why it matters here: VW and Audi were individually reviewed and failed every privacy criterion.
Descriptive, cited, not legal advice; ratings are versioned and corrections create a new version. Data from the IoT Info Grabber DB research project, CC BY-SA 4.0.