On Friday, the Dutch data protection watchdog was aware of potential Tesla data breaches, but it was too early to comment.
A whistleblower disclosed 100 terabytes of confidential data from Tesla (TSLA.O) on Thursday, according to Germany’s Handelsblatt.
“We are aware of the Handelsblatt story and we are looking into it,” said an AP data watchdog spokeswoman in the Netherlands, Tesla’s European headquarters.
They wouldn’t say if the agency were investigating, citing protocol. Finally, however, the Brandenburg agency informed the Dutch agency.
Handelsblatt reported that Tesla informed the Dutch authorities of the breach, but the AP representative claimed they were unaware of any such notification.
On Friday, Tesla declined to comment on the Handelsblatt story that “Tesla Files” contained “in abundance” consumer data.
Tesla’s European gigafactory located in Brandenburg, whose data protection authority called the leak “massive.”
“I can’t remember such a scale,” Brandenburg data protection officer Dagmar Hartge said, adding that the Dutch authorities would handle any enforcement action.
She said the Dutch government has several weeks to determine whether to pursue a European procedure. Handelsblatt reported that the files contain tables with more than 100,000 names of former and current employees, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s social security number, private email addresses, phone numbers, salaries, customer bank details, and production secrets.
It said the breach violated GDPR. Tesla may be penalized 4% of its yearly sales or 3.26 billion euros if found guilty.
German union IG Metall termed the disclosures “disturbing” and urged Tesla to educate employees about all data protection infractions and foster a culture where employees could openly discuss issues. “These revelations…fit with the picture we have gained in just under two years,” said Dirk Schulze, IG Metall’s incoming district manager for Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony.
A Tesla lawyer told Handelsblatt that a “disgruntled former employee” had exploited their service technician access and that the business would sue the leaker.
The publication uncovered thousands of consumer complaints about the carmaker’s driver assistance technologies using hacked files, including 4,000 on rapid acceleration or phantom braking.
Reuters reported last month that Tesla staff shared highly invasive recordings and photos from consumers’ car cameras via an internal messaging system between 2019 and 2022.
This week, Facebook parent Meta (META.O) was fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by the key European Union privacy authority for handling user data and given five months to halt transmitting data to the U.S.
