Is Your New BYD a Spy Car? Shocking Data Leak Fears Explode in Korea

Cybersecurity experts are raising alarms over potential data leaks to China following BYD’s entry into the South Korean electric vehicle market. Concerns center on the Chinese automaker’s connected car features and data handling practices, fueling privacy anxieties among consumers and industry observers.

Concerns over personal data leakage to China through BYD vehicles have been voiced by industry experts Tuesday in light of the company’s recent entry into Korea’s passenger electric vehicle (EV) sector, The Korea Times reports.

Following BYD’s formal entrance into the Korean passenger vehicle market last month, security concerns over private data leakage to China surfaced.

Industry observers are concerned that the Atto 3, BYD’s first model to hit the local market, could transmit private driver information to China via its network of interconnected vehicles, which includes capabilities like navigation and the capacity to download software updates over the air (OTA).

“BYD must disclose exactly what types of data are collected and how they are processed,” stated Yom Heung-yeol, retired professor of cybersecurity at Soonchunhyang University.

He emphasized the need of a “opt-out mechanism,” which would enable customers to refuse data collecting if they so desired.

“We fully understand Korean customers’ concerns regarding personal data security and strictly comply with the Personal Information Protection Act,” BYD Korea stated in response to data protection issues.

That information is not shared with BYD’s headquarters in China but rather handled locally in Korea.

Additionally, the business has denied rumors that it intends to use DeepSeek, an AI service offered by China, into its automobiles.

The Chinese electric vehicle maker Geely has now declared its intention to use DeepSeek’s AI model in its upcoming models.

Korean government organizations and private companies have banned the use of DeepSeek at work due to concerns over potential data leaks that have arisen since its inception.

There are still concerns over the storing of Korean customer data on the servers of Tencent Cloud, a Chinese IT business, even though BYD has assured everyone otherwise.

Experts are worried that Korean user data may be stored on a server associated with China, even though the server is administered within Korea.

The government should thoroughly examine BYD vehicles from a cybersecurity and performance perspective, according to Lim Jong-in, an emeritus professor at Korea University’s graduate school of information security.

“Like Huawei in the past, there is a possibility of backdoor access vulnerabilities that allow third parties to bypass security protections and access data,” Lim warned.

Luis Gochoco

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