Dahua cameras in a Leapmotor: split the EV privacy question in two

Four Corners bought a rear camera for a Leapmotor C10 and found the letters DH stamped on it. ABC News reported that mark as a Dahua Technology identifier. It also reported that the C10 carries six cameras, giving a 360-degree view outside the car plus cabin monitoring.

If you're shortlisting a connected EV this year, a story like that sends you back to the brochure. One camera part doesn't prove anything about where footage goes, and none of the reporting says it does. What the story does is raise a question most buyers never hear at the dealership: what does this car collect, and who gets it?

We make a charging app, so people ask us a version of that question too. Our answer is further down. First, what was actually reported, and why it pays to split the privacy question in two.

What Four Corners reported about the Leapmotor C10

The camera wasn't a one-off part from a random supplier. ABC News reported that filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange show Leapmotor has an ongoing supply contract with a Dahua subsidiary covering cameras, sensors and radars. Cars24 named that subsidiary as Dahua Zhilian.

CarsGuide's reporting names the C10, B10 and B05 as the models involved. CarsGuide's earlier article said it didn't yet know which models had Dahua cameras, so the B10 and B05 sit on CarsGuide's reporting rather than on anything Four Corners showed on air. The Canberra Times and Yahoo News carried the story as well.

Why the Dahua name is familiar in Canberra

Dahua isn't a new name here. Senator James Paterson released an audit that found at least 913 Hikvision and Dahua devices at about 250 Australian Government sites. The list included Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Treasury, Social Services, and Climate Change and Energy.

NPR reported in 2023 that Defence Minister Richard Marles said the cameras would be removed. The Register reported that Defence removed its Chinese-made surveillance cameras after the audit.

The cars are a different matter. ABC News reported that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said there's no blanket ban on connected vehicles near sensitive sites, though precautions are taken, such as telling drivers to park well away.

What Stellantis Australia says the cameras do

Stellantis Australia, Leapmotor's parent company here, confirmed to CarsGuide that the Dahua cameras are fitted. It said the camera system isn't designed to record, store, upload to the cloud or send footage to third parties in normal use. Recording is controlled by the owner and needs an external USB drive.

ABC News made a wider point, and it applies to every connected car, not just this one. Modern EVs run on software that can be controlled and updated remotely. That raises the possibility that cameras or microphones could be switched on without the owner knowing. ABC raised it as something that could happen, not something it found.

Cars24 listed the hardware that sits in a connected EV: cameras, microphones, GPS, communications hardware and software that can be updated remotely. So the maker's statement covers how the camera system works in normal use. Who can change that with an update is a separate question, and it belongs to whoever controls the car's software.

Two questions to ask before you buy a connected EV

Split it in two before you sign anything.

The first question is about the car's own hardware. What do the cameras, microphones, GPS and modem collect, where does it go, and who can change that later? The car maker answers that one, through the dealer and the privacy policy covering the car's telematics and connected app.

The second question is about every app you install. The charging app, the network apps, the car maker's own app on your phone. Each one has its own maker and its own answer.

A good answer to one tells you nothing about the other. A car with a clean camera story can still sit next to a phone full of apps carrying trackers. An app with no trackers can't tell you a thing about the car it's riding in.

Questions to put to the dealer, in writing if you can:

• Which cameras and microphones does the car have, inside and out?
• Does anything record or upload by default, and can I switch connected services off?
• Who can push software updates, and am I told when they do?
• Where is the privacy policy for the car's telematics and its connected app?

Questions to check for any app before you install it:

• Does it carry ads, or ad and tracking SDKs?
• Is your data sold?
• Does it use your location in the background?
• Can you use it without an account, and delete the account from inside the app?

Our answer, for our own app

We can only answer the second question, and only for Charge Nomad. Charge Nomad is made by EV by Gen Z, Adam's EV review channel on the Sunshine Coast, and it's on iPhone (iOS 17 or later) and Android (Android 8 or later). Here's the whole answer.

• No ads anywhere in the app, no ad or tracking SDKs, and your data is never sold.
• On iPhone, every dependency is Apple's own or built in-house, with zero third-party SDKs.
• Google Play's data safety section for the app states no data is shared with third parties.
• Location is used only while the app is in use. There's no background tracking.
• Analytics are currently a no-op sink, so nothing is sent, and you can opt out in the privacy screen anyway.
• Most of the app works without an account. If you make one, sign-up takes your name, email and vehicle, with a one-time code to confirm the email.
• You can delete your account and its data from inside the app.

The money comes from the optional upgrade, not from your driving habits. Charge Nomad+ covers the Route Planner, the Range Estimator and more than one car in your garage. The charger map, Stranded mode and the other tools are free. On iPhone, Charge Nomad+ is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year in Australia, with a 7 day free trial on the monthly plan. On Android there's a 7 day free trial on the monthly plan, and Google Play shows the price before you buy. Prices vary by country.

For a driver weighing up a connected EV, Charge Nomad takes the charging app off the list of things to audit. It matches chargers to your exact car, including imported EVs, so you're not guessing at connectors. The Route Planner works out where to stop and how long to charge. Stranded mode finds the closest charger you can actually reach and shows the right emergency and roadside numbers for Australia or New Zealand. None of it carries an ad or tracking SDK.

What we can't tell you is what your car sends. Ask the dealer for the privacy policy covering the car's telematics and its connected app, and read it before you sign.

See what the app actually does before you download it: evbygenz.com/app

If you've bought a connected EV this year, did anyone at the dealership tell you what the car collects?