The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and Connected Vehicles: A New Form of Panspectric Veillance Looming?

White, Matthew; Ferris, Katy; Marson, James

Abstract

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) currently exist in varying states of readiness to, at one end of the spectrum, assist the driver in normal driving activities and at the other operate in fully autonomous mode, requiring no driver input at all. In facilitating these features, CAVs create, give access to, and allow communication of the data produced. The further along the autonomous scale CAVs progress, the greater the data generated, which are being harvested by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), often unwittingly by the end user. The operation of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives government agencies power to compel the retention and access to these data. Here we argue that the definitions within the Act result in CAV OEMs being subject to retention notices of the data generated by these vehicles. This issue, its extent and potential for abuse, and the lack of protection for those associated with the use of CAVs, hitherto unexamined in the legal academic literature, is the focus of this paper.

Citation

White, M., Ferris, K., & Marson, J. (2023). The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and Connected Vehicles: A New Form of Panspectric Veillance Looming?. Statute Law Review, 44(1), Article hmac004. https://doi.org/10.1093/slr/hmac004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 6, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 26, 2022
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 27, 2024
• Journal: Statute Law Review
• Print ISSN: 0144-3593
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3863
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: hmac004
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/slr/hmac004
• Keywords: Breach of human rights; Communications data; Connected and autonomous vehicles; Investigatory Powers Act 2016; Privacy, Retention notices
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7412591