Fears Australian dashcam company could be putting customers’ privacy at risk

An Australian dashcam company may be putting customers’ privacy at risk, broadcasting their location and live camera feed to the world.

Alex’s jaw dropped when he made an alarming discovery about his new dashcam.

“I saw this little map icon for the dashcam, I clicked on that and I could see my dashcam,” Alex said.

“But I zoomed out and I could see everyone else’s dash cams.”

The camera’s app broadcasted a real-time video feed of other dashcam users around the world, where they were going and what they were saying. 

“I could hear people having their normal conversations and everything, it was very strange,” he said.

The cloud connectivity feature, available from Australian company BlackVue, was sold in popular stores nationwide. 

Read more

WA police launch real-time AI camera surveillance to catch criminals

On its website, the company sells it as a tool to check on your vehicle, but what they don’t make clear is anyone can do the same.

“You could keep listening to them, watching them and go from there, it’s bad for predators,” Alex said.

It is understood the cloud used to be an opt-out feature, and only recently changed to opt-in.

There are concerns people may not realise what they are signing up to, especially those who have their camera connected to the car battery allowing it to record 24 hours a day.

“This is probably one of the biggest privacy or security concerns I’ve seen with a piece of technology in a long time,” Nine tech expert Trevor Long said.

“I would think that one per cent of people know this is happening, the other 99 per cent have no idea they’ve connected this to the public.”

In a statement to 9News, BlackVue said it is operating in accordance with Australia’s Cyber Security Act and information recently circulating on social media about the product is “sensationalist and inaccurate”.

Though the technology exists, most manufacturers don’t make it publicly available.

Dashcam owners are urged to check their privacy settings.

“We should have someone from the government contacting this company today and ensuring their users are fully aware of just what they’re exposing to the rest of the world,” Long said.