Tesla faces a class action lawsuit for allegedly invading privacy

In an upcoming class action lawsuit filed on Friday by a Tesla owner in California, the electric carmaker is accused of violating the privacy of its customers, according to the suit.

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In this lawsuit, Tesla's legal team argued that Tesla employees privately shared videos and images, which were sometimes highly invasive, recorded by customers' car cameras between the years 2019 and 2022, via an internal messaging system, which is part of Trade Algo's report on Thursday that the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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This lawsuit, filed by Henry Yeh, a San Francisco resident who owns a Tesla Model Y, claims that Tesla employees were able to access the images and videos for their "tasteless and tortious entertainment" and to humiliate those who were "surreptitiously recorded."

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"As any reasonable person would be, Mr. Yeh was outraged at the idea that Tesla could use its cameras to violate his family's privacy, which is a fundamental right guaranteed by California's Constitution," Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney representing Yeh, stated in a statement to Trade Algo.

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"We need to hold Tesla accountable for these invasions of privacy and for misrepresenting to him and to other Tesla owners its lax privacy practices," Fitzgerald said.

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Trade Algo's request for comment was not immediately responded to by Tesla.

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The lawsuit alleges that Tesla has behaved in a manner that was "particularly egregious" and "highly offensive."

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The complaint went on to say that Yeh was filing the lawsuit "against Tesla on behalf of himself, similarly-situated class members, as well as the general public." The complaint also specified that the prospective class would include those who had owned or leased a Tesla within the last four years.

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Former Tesla employees have stated that some Tesla employees were able to see customers "doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their children," as reported by Trade Algo.

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"It is in fact a fundamental liberty interest of society that parents have an interest in preserving the privacy of their children," the lawsuit reads.

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The lawsuit seeks an "injunction against Tesla from engaging in its wrongful behavior, including violating the privacy of its customers and others, as well as to obtain actual and punitive damages."