Chinese brand says its data is secure, commits to customer privacy

Chinese auto brand Leapmotor will continue to use cameras supplied by Dahua despite the company’s hardware being removed from Australian government buildings, and it says most of its customers aren’t concerned about their data being breached.

Leapmotor was one of numerous automotive brands name-checked in a recent report by ABC’s Four Corners about customer data security and privacy, specifically for its use of cameras supplied by Chinese company Dahua.

“The cameras are from Dahua, that’s what we’ve been advised,” Leapmotor Australia boss Andy Hoang told Australian media including CarExpert.

“Having said that though, the vehicles themselves have been independently tested for certification for privacy.

“And as we look through our positioning and the functionality of those cameras, there’s nothing in there to suggest anything other than the cameras are designed to help with safety driving functionalities, and the only place where footage is captured is via the dashcam which is USB only for exporting.”

Dahua cameras were banned from federal government buildings in 2023, following similar bans in the US and UK over spyware fears, with Shadow Minister for Defence James Paterson telling Four Corners it’s “extraordinary” that vehicles with these cameras are allowed to drive around government buildings and installations.

Senator Paterson said Dahua has been directly implicated in human rights abuses and mass surveillance of Uyghur people in China.

But Leapmotor Australia says only a small number of its customers have raised concerns about the security of their data following the Four Corners report.

“To be totally transparent with you, if we had 100 customers, we probably had about two customers raise that as something that they questioned or wanted to know more about,” said Mr Hoang.

“The majority of feedback that we’ve had from owners in particular have been like, if that was an issue, wouldn’t the phone be the first thing that everyone looks at? Because the phone is built in China and it’s filming all the time.

“And if the dashcam or the camera is an issue, wouldn’t that be with every car in the market? Every car’s kind of got that. So the owners themselves haven’t really seen this as a big issue.”

Leapmotor says its association with Stellantis – the two companies have a joint venture to distribute the Chinese brand's vehicles in export markets – means it has to follow tougher privacy regulations.

“We’re pretty confident from our end because we know we take it pretty seriously, and that’s the advantage of having Stellantis as the partner,” said Mr Hoang.

“We’ve been in the industry for a long time. We take privacy and customer data really seriously. And all the compliance that we need to go through, us and Europe, which is through GDPR [the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation] which is a higher standard than here. We comply with that, and all of our terms and conditions comply with Europe.”

The wide-ranging Four Corners report also looked at the ability for BYD and Xpeng vehicles to be remotely accessed.

Subsequently, BYD investigated its Shark 6 and identified a software vulnerability, which it says it’s fixing with an over-the-air software update. However, it noted initial access to the Shark 6 used in the program required physical contact with the vehicle using special tools.

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