A California Tesla owner has filed a potential class action lawsuit against the electric carmaker in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the company violated the privacy of its customers. A Reuters report on Thursday revealed that groups of Tesla employees had privately shared highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers' car cameras between 2019 and 2022 via an internal messaging system. The lawsuit, filed by Henry Yeh, a San Francisco resident who owns a Tesla Model Y, claims that Tesla employees could access the images and videos for their entertainment, leading to the humiliation of those who were secretly recorded. Yeh's attorney, Jack Fitzgerald, stated that his client was outraged by the idea that Tesla's cameras could be used to violate his family's privacy, which the California Constitution carefully protects.
According to Yeh's attorney, Jack Fitzgerald, Tesla must be held accountable for these privacy violations and for falsely representing its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners. However, Tesla still needs to respond to Reuters' request for comment. The lawsuit argues that Tesla's conduct is particularly egregious and highly offensive. Yeh is filing the complaint against Tesla for himself, other similarly situated class members and the general public. The proposed class would include individuals who owned or leased a Tesla within the past four years. Reuters reported that some Tesla employees could view highly personal content captured by the cameras, such as customers doing laundry or other intimate activities, including seeing their children. The lawsuit highlights the fundamental liberty interests society recognizes in parents' interest in their children's privacy. As a result, the complaint seeks to enjoin Tesla from engaging in this wrongful behavior, including violating customers' and others' privacy, and to recover actual and punitive damages.
