Ford Launches a Privacy Promise Before Its Connected Cars Arrive

Ford has unveiled a “privacy promise,” a public commitment to keep customers’ vehicle data safe and to let owners control what they share. The announcement, reported by TechCrunch on November 2, 2026, came with a new website that explains how, where, and why Ford uses customer data and shows owners how to change their data-sharing settings.

Ford timed the push ahead of more connected vehicles it plans to build on its upcoming “universal electric vehicle” platform. Those vehicles have not launched yet, so the privacy materials arrive before the hardware and software they will govern.

Kristin Jones is Ford’s chief privacy officer. She joined the company in 2024 after nearly two decades working on privacy in legal, financial, and healthcare settings.

The controls carry a functional cost. Turning off “connected services” disables features such as real-time navigation and built-in access to roadside assistance. An owner who opts out of data sharing through that route also gives up those services, so the setting is a trade-off rather than a free switch.

Ford states that it collects vehicle data to improve its products. Its Privacy Policy describes how the company collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information across its websites, apps, and services. The separate privacy page for Ford Pro defines “Vehicle Data” to include the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), hardware model, and part numbers. A VIN is a unique serial number assigned to one vehicle, so that definition places the identifier itself inside the data category Ford describes.

The timing also sits beside a finding from outside the company. In early October, Yahoo Autos reported on privacy testing of 21 vehicles, in which only two did not transmit personal customer information. Ford was among the automakers whose vehicles did.

The broader context here is that a privacy promise is a statement about what a vehicle should do, while testing asks what it actually sends. A policy document defines categories. A network capture records the data packets a car transmits over the internet, and the two are measured differently. The gap between them is where expert scrutiny of connected-car programs tends to concentrate.

In my view, the most useful test of Ford’s program will be whether the settings page matches observable behavior. If an owner disables connected services and the transmissions stop, the promise has teeth. If the categories in the policy and the traffic on the network diverge, the website will have explained the design without changing the outcome.

There is also a constructive reading. A customer-facing explanation of what is collected, why, and how to switch it off gives owners a concrete basis for weighing data sharing against features like live navigation. Ford’s new platform vehicles will be the first to test that choice at scale, and it will be easier to make if the controls are accurate and the trade-offs are plain.