Ford Says It Keeps Your Driving Data Away From Ads and Data Brokers

The automaker's new privacy site shows how to opt out, but switching off connected services also cuts real-time navigation and roadside help.

Ford owners now have one place to see what their cars report back to the company. On Monday the automaker launched what it calls a "privacy promise," along with a website that lays out what data Ford gathers, what it does with it and how drivers can opt in or out, TechCrunch reported.

The switches aren't new, since Ford has offered these controls for years. The explanation is new, and so is a pledge from Kristin Jones, Ford's chief privacy officer, that the data doesn't feed targeted advertising. "We also do not share information about how our customers are driving their vehicles to data brokers," Jones told TechCrunch.

The timing has to do with Ford's next cars. The company is getting ready to sell more connected vehicles, including models built on its coming "universal electric vehicle" platform, and it wants drivers to understand the settings before those cars arrive.

For someone already driving a Ford, the biggest choice is the connected-services setting, and it comes with a cost. Shutting it off takes features with it, Jones said, and two she named are real-time navigation and the car's built-in link to roadside assistance. One goal of the new site, according to TechCrunch, is to explain why Ford asks for each kind of data, not just how to refuse it.

Ford is betting that drivers care. "We did a survey of 1,000 consumers, and 91% of them said that data privacy was a key consideration for them," Ford chief privacy officer Kristin Jones told TechCrunch. She also admitted that most people don't deal with it day to day. They just want to know they're in charge.

The rest of the industry hasn't made trust easy. TechCrunch noted that some companies have quietly sold drivers' data to third parties. General Motors ran into trouble with the Federal Trade Commission for doing it, TechCrunch reported, and in the week before Ford's announcement, 36 states reached a $220 million deal with GM. Jones wouldn't comment on competitors. Meanwhile Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has been marketing itself as a better keeper of customer data ahead of the expected launch of its stripped-down pickup.

Ford's promise covers ads and brokers, but it doesn't cover everything. Sharing vehicle-health data gets an owner real-time alerts when the car needs maintenance, Jones said, but Ford also uses that data to "support research and development for future technologies." It isn't going to advertisers or brokers, and it isn't only for the driver either.

Source: TechCrunch, retrieved November 2, 2026.