Ford

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Henry Ford made the first patent Ford automobile, the quadricycle in 1896. He then incorporated the Ford motor company in 1903. They are now a company known for anti-consumer practices, like marked up parts sharing that probably started in the late 1990's.

Consumer Protection Summary

Privacy

• Collects an enormous amount of sensitive personal information from many sources, including data from the vehicle, data from the connected app, and data from purchasing the vehicle.
• Data collected includes purchase history, financial information, coarse and precise location, contact information, identifiers (like VIN, account ID), user content (like voice recordings when you use smart features), search and browsing history for advertising, usage data, sensitive information (under "Inferences"), diagnostics, and more.
• Aggregates data from external sources as well, including things you post to social media.
• Unfriendly design of the privacy policy prevents searching for terms quickly.
• There is a lack of clarity in how long data is retained.
• CCPA Metrics from 2023 show that there were 96 requests for data to be deleted, and 7 of these requests were denied.

Anti-Consumer Practices

Ford have been known for being the maker of America's most recalled vehicles, setting the record for most recalls issued in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Ford have filed dangerous patents and have issued a software update that ended up bricking a vehicle.

Ford have also obtained patents for systems like one that serves ads based on the driver's conversations, and another patent for a system to annoy the owner of, restrict access to and then repossess or destroy vehicles where the owner "has defected" on finance payments.