USA Massachusetts begin enforcement of Right to Repair (car data) law

[Rick Law]

As I understand it, The State of Massachusetts passed this State Law by referendum (i.e. direct yes/no vote by voters and not law makers) in 2020, but Coalition for Safe and Secure Data (a.k.a. Alliance For Automotive Innovation, reported to be an auto manufacturers funded group) filed an injunction (likely associated with a law suit against this Law) stopping it from being enforced during the legal process.  The injunction was lifted by a judge and the AG (top law enforcement for the State) will being enforcing the law 6/1/2023.

My understand is: the 2020 law forces auto-manufacturers to make it accessible to owner and third party repair shops the wireless data collected by the car that is currently only accessible by dealer repair shops.  As I understand it, an earlier 2012 law only addressed accessibility of wired-data. This law was to "close the loop hole"  as more of the car data is now available by wireless means only and thus not available to third party repair shops prior to this 2020 law.

Not being a lawyer, above are my understanding of facts from a layman's perspective.

Reference:
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-ballot-question-1-right-to-repair-vehicle-data/

[ConKbot]

If cars are gathering and storing such sensitive data, that compromising it leads to me getting raped in a parking garage, I think maybe  car manufacturers and mechanics should be held to HIPAA esque data security and auditing standards.

Or is the coalition for safe and secure data not for data being that safe or that secure?

[tom66]

Or is the coalition for safe and secure data not for data being that safe or that secure?

I think they'd be better known as the "coalition to scare people from voting for more access to their cars".

It's really sad what length the lobbyists will go to convince consumers to vote against their own interests.  Thankfully they failed in this case.

[Rick Law]

Or is the coalition for safe and secure data not for data being that safe or that secure?

I think they'd be better known as the "coalition to scare people from voting for more access to their cars".

It's really sad what length the lobbyists will go to convince consumers to vote against their own interests.  Thankfully they failed in this case.

From what I can gather, the "Coalition for safe and secure data" and the "Alliance For Automotive Innovation" are one and the same -- the entry page of "Coalition for safe and secure data" website has "Alliance For Automotive Innovation" logo on the upper left.  The link is below at the bottom.

I will repeat the link to the original CBS news article at the bottom, but there are others that I also read.  These news articles suggest the "Alliance / Coalition" is a lobbying group funded by auto-manufacturer rather than security concerned public.  That lead me to believe they just want to make the data not available to third party repair.  This however is my take on the articles. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-ballot-question-1-right-to-repair-vehicle-data/

https://safeandsecuredata.org/

[tom66]

It literally discloses at the bottom of the "Coalition for Safe and Secure Data" website that its majority donors are automakers.

Paid for by the Coalition for Safe and Secure Data. Top donors include GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Nissan, FCA, Kia, Hyundai, Subaru, VW/Audi, Mazda, BMW, Daimler, Mitsubishi, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo. For more information visit http://mass.gov/ocpf.