Germany: Announced Lower Saxony data protection authority legal assessment of Volkswagen AG on new data processing procedures in customer vehicles

On 26 September 2024, the state commissioner for data protection in Lower Saxony announced that, along with the data protection supervisory authorities in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, it was engaged in an exchange with Volkswagen AG and its subsidiaries, Audi and Porsche on its new data processing procedures in customer vehicles. According to the commissioner, Volkswagen plans to introduce the use of customer vehicle sensors and image data to enhance driver assistance and safety systems. The commissioner states that Volkswagen plans to begin collecting and processing vehicle sensor data from certain models in Germany, with the consent of users, under specific and driving scenarios from the fourth quarter of 2024. As part of the exchange, the commissioner is undertaking a legal assessment of Volkswagen's planned data processing procedures.