Concerns raised over potential data leak to China via BYD cars

Seoul:  With the recent entry by China’s BYD into South Korea’s passenger electric vehicle (EV) market, concerns have been raised over potential personal data leaks to China through the vehicles manufactured by the company, industry observers said on Tuesday.

The security risks of private data leaks to China emerged following BYD’s official entry into the South Korean passenger vehicle market last month, reports Yonhap news agency.

BYD’s first model launched here, the Atto 3, is equipped with connected car features, such as over-the-air (OTA) software update capability and navigation features, through which sensitive driver data could be transferred to China, according to the market watchers.

“BYD must disclose exactly what types of data are collected and how they are processed,” said Yom Heung-yeol, professor emeritus of cybersecurity at Soonchunhyang University.

He stressed that an “opt-out mechanism,” allowing consumers to reject the collection of personal data if they choose, was necessary.

BYD Korea has addressed data protection concerns, stating, “We fully understand Korean customers’ concerns regarding personal data security and strictly comply with the Personal Information Protection Act.”

It said that data collected in South Korea is managed locally and not shared with BYD headquarters in China.

The company has also stated that it has no plans to integrate DeepSeek, China’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) service, into its vehicles.

Chinese EV manufacturer Geely recently announced a plan to incorporate DeepSeek’s AI model into its vehicles.

The recent launch of DeepSeek has raised concerns over potential data leaks globally, having prompted South Korean government agencies and private companies to ban the use of its service at work.

Despite BYD’s assurances, concerns persist regarding the storage of Korean user data on Tencent Cloud servers, which belong to a Chinese IT company.

Although managed within South Korea, the storage of Korean user data on a China-affiliated server has sparked unease among experts.

Lim Jong-in, professor emeritus at Korea University’s graduate school of information security, said the government must conduct rigorous inspections of BYD vehicles not only in terms of performance but also from a cybersecurity standpoint.

“Like Huawei in the past, there is a possibility of backdoor access vulnerabilities that allow third parties to bypass security protections and access data,” Lim said.

—IANS