Study finds many new cars share your data with third-party companies

The report analyzed traffic from 21 vehicles and 30 automaker apps.Pinterest probably doesn’t need your car’s VIN, but General Motors’ apps were sending it there anyway — and to Snap, Yahoo, Meta, Google and the data broker Acxiom. At least, that’s according to a recent study from Northeastern University, which tested 21 late-model cars and 30 automaker apps on Consumer Reports’ fleet between October 2024 and August 2025.