Advertisers and tech companies are desperate to get their hands on data collected by connected cars, posing a privacy headache for car manufacturers, BMW has warned. BMW board member for sales and marketing Ian Robertson told the Financial Times that its cars know when a child is on board, using weight sensors linked to the airbag system.  Advertisers are keen to acquire this information, he said, because along with data on how long the engine has been running they could tell from the navigation system that they are about to pass a McDonald’s, the car’s been running for three hours and the child is probably hungry.

Wireless network

Robertson said that all of the marque’s cars had a wireless network which can transmit information about location, speed, acceleration and occupants of the car, but this data is protected by a firewall.  The company has rejected advances from Silicon Valley companies and advertising groups keen to exploit this data, he said.