Privacy Implications of Smartphone-Based Connected Vehicle Communications

Considerable work has been carried out into making the vision of connected vehicles a reality, with inter-operable communications to take place between vehicles for the purpose of improving road safety and alerting road users to accidents or sudden braking. The cost of deploying such a solution to large numbers of vehicles is significant, and vehicles have a much longer lifespan than other consumer equipment, leading to other work considering the use of smartphones as possible devices for such connected vehicle networks. In this paper, we consider the security and privacy implications of using smartphone based platforms for connected vehicle applications, both in vehicles, and those carried by pedestrians. We also consider the general risks of relying on consumer smartphones, particularly with regard to the lack of long-term security updates being available. We finally explore the need for privacy to be considered in the design of solutions, in addition to the well-recognised need for security, and explore the trade-off between anonymity and prevention of abuse, in the context of designing future connected vehicle technologies.