Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019 - 21

QA

WITH
JERRY McNERNEY

Congressman: Avoid pitfalls handling vehicle-generated data

J

erry McNerney is establishing
himself in the U.S. House of
Representatives as a champion
of data protection. McNerney,
a Democrat and a member of Congress
since 2007, represents California's 9th
District, east of San Francisco and south
of Sacramento. He is a member of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, and
he has introduced two consumer-privacy
acts. While neither of those - the Data
Accountability and Trust Act in 2015 and
the Managing Your Data Against Telecom
Abuses Act of 2017 - became law, they
show McNerney's interest in data privacy.
He spoke with Sebastian Blanco about
data security in light of the automobile's
evolution. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: WHY IS DATA PRIVACY
IMPORTANT?
A: People in this country are more and
more concerned about losing control of
their data. When people drive cars that

are connected or [use] an autonomous
vehicle, there's going to be just a
tremendous amount of data that's
available. And it might give more insight
to stakeholders than is available today.

Q: WHAT IS CONGRESS' ROLE IN
THIS?
A: Our responsibility is to investigate
this carefully. There are a number of
stakeholders involved - the car dealers,
the manufacturers, people who repair
your car, local and state governments,
car owners. What we need to do is
have a set of hearings to look into this
question from those different points of
view so that we can understand what the
legitimate interests are in the data and
how we can provide that data in a secure
way to the people who need it and to the
people who have a right to it.

Q: HAVE YOU LEARNED ANY DATA
PRIVACY LESSONS FROM OTHER
INDUSTRIES THAT THE AUTO
INDUSTRY SHOULD BE AWARE OF
AND FOLLOWING?
A: Absolutely. We've certainly seen
some of the pitfalls in other industries, in
terms of data privacy, and some of the
extraordinary lengths that some of these
interest groups and stakeholders have
taken to have access to that data. It's
important to have that in mind as we move
forward so that we don't allow those sorts
of pitfalls to prevail. It's important that we
move very aggressively on this issue. We
need to go and visit the stakeholders and
find out what their concerns are, what
their legitimate needs are.

Q: DO YOU SEE A DIFFERENCE IN
HOW THE AUTOMAKERS MIGHT
BE WILLING TO HANDLE THIS
DATA, GIVEN THAT SOME OF
THEM HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR
100 YEARS AND THEY HAVE A
LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH
THEIR CUSTOMERS?
A: It's obvious that the auto industry is so
much more mature. They've been through
cycles with personal safety, with economic
downturns, with foreign competition,
so they understand what it takes to get
through these things and that you have
to have the confidence of consumers if
you want long-term success. Although
with any business, there is some need for
oversight, so we don't just want to let them
decide what's best for the industry. That'll
end up giving them way too much control.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME GUIDELINES
THAT COMPANIES IN THE
CONNECTED-CAR INDUSTRY
CAN FOLLOW AS THEY MOVE
FORWARD WITH ALL OF
THIS DATA THEY WILL BE
COLLECTING?
A: I think the health care industry is a good
place for them to start. We've seen how
important that data is, how valuable, and
yet how personal. If there's an illegitimate
use of that data, then people can be put
at risk. I think that would be a good place
for them to look in terms of how do you
protect that data, what data do you need
to have versus what data you want to
have, and how do you share that data,
under what conditions. Those are good
examples for the auto industry. ■
june 2019 * shift

21
Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019

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