Big data leak at Tesla

There is apparently a major data leak at Tesla. A total of 100 GB of confidential data was leaked to Handelsblatt. This includes information on customers and employees as well as on new projects of the company. Tesla suspects an ex-employee, Brandenburg’s data protection commissioner is investigating the company for a possible data protection breach.

100 GB of confidential data

Handelsblatt first reported that a total of 100 GB of confidential data had been leaked to it by unknown persons. The data set contains addresses of customers, for example, as well as other personal data on them and on the company’s employees. Information on salaries is also said to be in the data set. The employees concerned work at the Grünheide site in Brandenburg and at other Tesla sites in Europe.

The data also contains information on Tesla’s current projects. For example, there are plans for a self-driving car, new battery cells or the planned Cybertruck electric pickup truck.

Brandenburg’s data protection commissioner investigates

Dagmar Hartge, the data protection commissioner for the state of Brandenburg, has already announced that she has begun investigating the case. Dutch authorities have also begun investigations. There are suspicions of inadequate data protection at Tesla. “If this proves to be true, the matter would be particularly serious from a data protection perspective, also because of the large number of people affected worldwide,” a spokesman for Hartges said in this regard.

Tesla, meanwhile, has announced it suspects a former employee. He allegedly misused his access as a service technician to obtain the data and leak it to the newspaper. Tesla, however, did not provide any information about his possible motive.

The IG Metall trade union has also spoken out. It demanded that all employees be fully informed about the incident and the violation of their data protection rights. In this context, the union emphasized the many negative experiences it has had with Tesla since it set up shop in Grünheide.

Overall, data protection does not seem to play a major role at Tesla. Most recently, for example, it became known that employees shared recordings from security cameras of customer vehicles for amusement. It is unclear why they had access to the data.