Over 200 car manufacturers are sending real-time location information and dozens of other data points from electric vehicles in China to surveillance centres backed by the country's government.

Key points: Cars made by more than 200 manufacturers are transmitting position information to surveillance centres

Cars made by more than 200 manufacturers are transmitting position information to surveillance centres The information is generally transmitted without owners' knowledge

The information is generally transmitted without owners' knowledge Chinese officials say the data is being used to improve public safety, but critics say it is beyond that scope

The move — which comes as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens — potentially adds to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the Chinese Government.

Manufacturers including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi and NIO are among those transmitting position information and dozens of other data points to government-backed monitoring centres.

Generally, it happens without car owners' knowledge.

The manufacturers say they are merely complying with local laws, which apply only to alternative energy vehicles.

Chinese officials say the data is used for analytics to improve public safety, facilitate industrial development and infrastructure planning, and to prevent fraud in subsidy programs.

A dialogue box shows details of a vehicle from amongst thousands tracked and displayed at a government-backed monitoring centre in China. ( AP: Ng Han Guan )

But other countries that are major markets for electronic vehicles — the United States, Japan and Europe — do not collect this kind of real-time data.

Critics say the information collected in China is beyond what is needed to meet the country's stated goals.

It could be used not only to undermine foreign carmakers' competitive position, but also for surveillance — particularly in China, where there are few protections on personal privacy.

Under the leadership of Mr Xi, China has unleashed a war on dissent, marshalling big data and artificial intelligence to create a more perfect kind of policing, capable of predicting and eliminating perceived threats to the stability of the ruling Communist Party.

There is also concern about the precedent these rules set for sharing data from next-generation connected cars, which may soon transmit even more personal information.

A bigger brother?

According to national specifications published in 2016, electric vehicles in China transmit data from the car's sensors back to the manufacturer.

From there, manufacturers send at least 61 data points, including location and details about battery and engine function to local centres.

Data also flows to a national monitoring centre for new energy vehicles run by the Beijing Institute of Technology, which pulls information from more than 1.1 million vehicles across the country, according to the National Big Data Alliance of New Energy Vehicles.

Though electric vehicle sales accounted for just 2.6 percent of the total last year, policymakers have said they'd like new energy vehicles to account for 20 percent of total sales by 2025.

Maya Wang, a senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch, described the threat posed by vehicle tracking: "The Government wants to know what people are up to at all times and react in the quickest way possible".

"There is zero protection against state surveillance," Ms Wang said.

"Tracking vehicles is one of the main focuses of their mass surveillance."

Data on wheels

Many vehicles in the US, Europe and Japan transmit position information back to automakers, who feed it to car-tracking apps, maps that pinpoint nearby amenities and emergency services providers.

But the data stops there.

Car manufacturers initially resisted sharing information with Chinese monitoring centres — then the Government made transmitting data a prerequisite for getting incentives.

Global car manufacturers stressed that they share data to comply with Chinese regulations.

Nearly all have announced plans to aggressively expand their electric vehicle offerings in China, the world's largest car market.

"There are real-time monitoring systems in China where we have to deliver car data to a government system," Volkswagen Group China chief executive Jochem Heizmann said.

He acknowledged that he could not guarantee the data would not be used for government surveillance, but stressed that Volkswagen keeps personal data, like the driver's identity, secure within its own systems.

"It includes the location of the car, yes, but not who is sitting in it," he said, adding that cars won't reveal any more information than smart phones already do.

"There is not a principle difference between sitting in a car and being in a shopping mall and having a smart phone with you."

Jose Munoz, the head of Nissan's China operations, stressed that the car manufacturer operated according to the law.

"At Nissan, we are extremely committed to the Chinese market," he said. "We see it as the market that has the greatest opportunity to grow," Mr Munoz added.

Ford, BMW and NIO declined to comment. Mitsubishi did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

General Motors and Daimler said they transmit data in compliance with industry regulations and get consent from car buyers on how their vehicle data is collected and used.

Tesla declined to answer specific questions and instead pointed to a privacy policy buyers sign at the time of purchase, which stipulates that vehicle data can be shared "with other third parties when required by law," though there was no specific mention of the government monitoring centres in the Chinese version of the policy.



AP