Data Privacy
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 22
Likes: 4
From: Toronto
Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG
Data Privacy
Fellow Canadian M-B owners: who else is concerned about M-B Canada's recent announcement that they are moving data they hold about us outside of Canada, and specifically to servers domiciled in the US?
I am very annoyed by this. I don't trust the US - especially the current "administration" - to respect data privacy. Beyond that, however, I don't want potentially very sensitive data, including information that could describe my travel patterns and travel history, located outside of a jurisdiction governed by people answerable to me.
I've contacted M-B Canada and M-B Global. In both cases, the response was, essentially, "current law allows us to do this, without obtaining further consent, so we're going to do this". I consider this absolutely unacceptable and insulting.
I'm not going to try and educate readers about the importance of data privacy, but if its not on your radar, I strongly encourage you to do some research and educate yourself about how massively important this issue is, and why it will be increasingly important the more data exists.
Let's make this a massive headache for M-B Canada. Please, everyone, write to M-B Canada and tell them you don't want your data shipped outside Canada.
I am very annoyed by this. I don't trust the US - especially the current "administration" - to respect data privacy. Beyond that, however, I don't want potentially very sensitive data, including information that could describe my travel patterns and travel history, located outside of a jurisdiction governed by people answerable to me.
I've contacted M-B Canada and M-B Global. In both cases, the response was, essentially, "current law allows us to do this, without obtaining further consent, so we're going to do this". I consider this absolutely unacceptable and insulting.
I'm not going to try and educate readers about the importance of data privacy, but if its not on your radar, I strongly encourage you to do some research and educate yourself about how massively important this issue is, and why it will be increasingly important the more data exists.
Let's make this a massive headache for M-B Canada. Please, everyone, write to M-B Canada and tell them you don't want your data shipped outside Canada.
Last edited by ELD; Mar 2, 2018 at 09:15 AM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 4,037
Likes: 1,012
From: Miami, FL
2003 CL 600
Probably going to the headquarters in the southeast, I'd assume it will be just as safe as all other data MB holds. It's not like they are slack with it. They secure everything pretty well and have never had an issue that i'm aware of. They take customer privacy pretty seriously.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 22
Likes: 4
From: Toronto
Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG
Probably going to the headquarters in the southeast, I'd assume it will be just as safe as all other data MB holds. It's not like they are slack with it. They secure everything pretty well and have never had an issue that i'm aware of. They take customer privacy pretty seriously.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 3,745
Likes: 811
From: The Great White North
W204 C63 Coupe, W166 ML350 BlueTEC, 928GT, Taycan GTS Sport Turismo, C5 Z06 & IS300 race cars
MB Canada is now part of MBNA so there's a lot of "service consolidation" happening. As for your data privacy, the only change to you is that any data that MB may have about you that physically resides in the US is subject to the Patriot Act and as such can be accessed by the NSA and DHS without a warrant if and only if they deem that you present an imminent threat to their national security, so if you are worried about the NSA getting your address and mileage at which you replaced your oil, I think you have bigger problems to worry about. Besides, the metadata from your smartphone (regardless of what phone you use) says a LOT more about you that anything they may find through MB, and all of that data - whether it's iCloud, Google Maps, Siri or Google commands and searches, Facebook, Twitter, Waze and what not - all resides in the US so technically they already know everything about you.
If you really want absolute privacy, you need to get rids of all smart devices, live off the grid and deal only in cash, and if you drive, get a car that is at least 20 years old as everything made in the last 20 years collects some form of telemetry information. I'm an IT security consultant so this is not something I read on the Internet.
If you really want absolute privacy, you need to get rids of all smart devices, live off the grid and deal only in cash, and if you drive, get a car that is at least 20 years old as everything made in the last 20 years collects some form of telemetry information. I'm an IT security consultant so this is not something I read on the Internet.
