NEW DELHI — Innovation in the automotive industry must be pursued within firm boundaries that protect the privacy and security of customers’ data, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers President Shailesh Chandra said on Tuesday.
Speaking at an industry event in New Delhi, Chandra said modern vehicles generate and transmit large volumes of personal data, not only in electric vehicles but also in traditional internal combustion engine models.
“In electric vehicles – and even in the traditional ICE vehicles – a lot of data flows from the customer to multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem,” he said.
“These may be the video feed coming from your dashcam, phone numbers that you are connected within your infotainment system. There’s so much information that the customer is exposed and we as professionals care for the privacy,” he added.
Chandra, who is also the chief executive of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd, said original equipment manufacturers must approach data handling with heightened sensitivity and adopt clearly defined principles around privacy and security.
“At an OEM level, we should be very sensitive to the privacy and security and there should be some clear principles,” he said.
“The first principle is that you must make the customer aware and take the consent of what data is being used and what is going to be used in what manner. The second aspect is that we should classify the data,” Chandra said.
He identified data retention as a third critical consideration, noting the need to determine which information must be stored for longer periods and which should be deleted quickly.
According to Chandra, these principles can be effectively implemented only if privacy and security are built into systems at the design stage.
“Implementation of these principles can happen only when you design your systems for privacy, when you design your systems for security and what I mean by that is how you classify (the data),” he said.
Separately, the Indian automobile industry reported strong sales momentum last year. Passenger vehicle sales rose nearly 19 percent year-on-year in November to 412,405 units, according to industry data. Three-wheeler sales increased 21.3 percent to 71,999 units, while two-wheeler sales jumped 21.2 percent to 1,944,475 units.
Industry executives remain optimistic that supportive policy reforms and improving market sentiment will sustain growth through 2026. (Source: IANS)
