Tesla hit with prospective class-action lawsuit over alleged privacy intrusion

(Reuters) — A California Tesla owner on Friday sued the electric carmaker in a prospective class-action lawsuit accusing it of violating the privacy of customers.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California came after Reuters reported Thursday that groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras between 2019 and 2022.

The lawsuit, filed by Henry Yeh, a San Francisco resident who owns Tesla's Model Y, alleges that Tesla employees were able to access the images and videos for their "tasteless and tortious entertainment" and "the humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded."

“Like anyone would be, Mr. Yeh was outraged at the idea that Tesla's cameras can be used to violate his family's privacy, which the California Constitution scrupulously protects,” Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney representing Mr. Yeh, said in a statement to Reuters.

“Tesla needs to be held accountable for these invasions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The lawsuit said Tesla’s conduct is “particularly egregious” and “highly offensive.”

The lawsuit asks the court “to enjoin Tesla from engaging in its wrongful behavior, including violating the privacy of customers and others, and to recover actual and punitive damages.”