Otonomo Beats Claims That Use of Car Trackers Invades Privacy

Otonomo Inc. defeated a privacy suit over its use of a device installed into a car during the manufacturing process, with the Ninth Circuit ruling the tracker isn’t proscribed by the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

CIPA “was enacted to address private investigators affixing tracking devices to other people’s vehicles to track them without their knowledge,” the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said. The legislative record doesn’t support expanding the law to cover “devices built into a car during manufacturing that collect location data.”

• The device was a telematics control unit, which “collects information from a car’s ...