The Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ support a Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemption for vehicle operational data to promote the “right to repair.”
- An exemption currently exists for computer programs that control motorized land vehicles, marine vessels, and mechanized agricultural vehicles for purposes of diagnosis, repair, or lawful modification of the vehicle or vessel function.
- The FTC and DOJ support adopting an additional exemption to allow vehicle owners or the repair shop of their choice to access, store, and share vehicle operational data.
- Per the FTC: Giving owners the option of providing their own data to their chosen repairer need not increase cybersecurity risks as there is no evidence to suggest that independent repair shops are more likely than authorized repair shops to compromise or misuse customer data.
- In addition, the proposed exemption would simply empower owners by providing them access to their own vehicle operational data. It would not prevent a manufacturer from imposing a reasonable authentication measure that prevents access to the data by someone other than the owner or the owner’s authorized representative.
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