UK GDPR

Privacy Notice

Automotive R&D Activities

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) applies in the United Kingdom.

Certain test-vehicles operated by DinCare itself or by DinCare customers are fitted with prototype products which, as those vehicles are driven along the public road, collect and store a video-recording of the outside of the vehicle in the form of a series of clips (‘Clips’). Occasionally, these Clips also capture sound. Naturally, Clips may contain personal information (‘PI’, which is information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person).

The PI in this case principally comprises: (i) facial images, and (ii) vehicle license-plates. (It should be noted that although Clips may contain ‘special categories of personal data’, the collection of such data is incidental, and DinCare certainly does not perform any processing or any other analysis on or in relation to them.) In the case of customer-operated test-vehicles, Clips are conveyed securely from the United Kingdom to DinCare data servers in Norway or the Netherlands via secure file transfer.

1. What does DinCare do with Clips? (the ‘purpose of processing’)

DinCare uses Clips for internal product development, validation, testing and research purposes in the fields of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicles. In particular, we use them to ‘train’ and test our technology; principally, to improve its accuracy at identifying what one might expect to see on the road, e.g. other vehicles, pedestrians and street furniture.

But, to the extent that Clips contain PI, DinCare is interested in it only in its generic form (that is, the generic shape or appearance of a face or a license-plate, not the details of a particular face or license-plate), so that, for example, DinCare technology can become even better at identifying pedestrians and distinguishing them from other sights.

3. Storage of Clips within DinCare

DinCare utilises state-of-the-art technology to store Clips, for example:

  1. Access to them is restricted only to authorised persons for the stated purposes;
  2. Where stored locally on DinCare’s own servers, they are in a proprietary encoded format, such that only DinCare can play them back; and where stored in the DinCare cloud, they are stored in an encrypted form; and
  3. Access to these IT systems is monitored to detect and prevent misuse.

4. Transfer of Clips outside of DinCare (‘categories of recipients of personal information’)

Clips ‘leave’ DinCare in only a few, specific scenarios:

  1. Where Clips are stored with third parties such as AWS, leveraging such parties’ massive computing power and real-time scalability; or
  2. Where DinCare shares a certain number of them, in compressed form, with off-site employees in Europe or with external contractors worldwide, for the purpose of tagging, i.e. the contractors’ employees either (i) ‘tag’ certain features of a Clip in order to train and refine software identification accuracy; or (ii) perform after-the-fact review of the accuracy of computerised ‘tagging’; or
  3. Where, in order to demonstrate how DinCare technology works, Clips are featured on DinCare’s various websites or social media channels, or senior DinCare representatives play them before an audience of customers or potential customers, or at a corporate or trade event. In any event, the number of Clips involved is minimal and any PI within them is blurred where and to the extent practicable.

Transfer of Clips under sub-sections a)–c) is done either (i) through upload to and download from secure private services (and not, for example, through third-party web-based services) or (ii) on physical media with reputable international couriers (the physical media itself is secured through encryption or other technical means).

In the case of transfer of Clips to third countries, DinCare relies on a combination of applicable UK adequacy regulations, standard data protection clauses and appropriate technical and organisational measures.

5. Clip Retention Duration

DinCare retains the Clips for as long as they continue to be useful for the purposes stated above, or in accordance with applicable laws, whichever is shorter.

6. Individuals’ Rights in Respect of Their PI Contained within a Clip or Clips

Individuals have various rights under the UK GDPR in respect of PI pertaining to them. However, please note that these rights are necessarily limited due to the fact that DinCare neither collates nor indexes PI (there is no mechanism allowing, for example, a search through the Clips database for a frame or frames containing any particular vehicle or individual).

As a result, it is highly unlikely that DinCare would be able to identify a particular individual within its Clips database unless that individual could provide additional information, such as the location and time at which he/she believes the relevant Clip or Clips were collected.

Nonetheless, DinCare will review and respond to any requests on a case-by-case basis. In the unusual case where an individual registers an objection with the driver of a DinCare-operated test-vehicle in real or close-to-real time, drivers are instructed to make a record of such objections and to relay them for review. In such an exceptional case, by contrast to the above, it would usually be possible to identify and delete the relevant Clip or Clips.

7. Individuals’ Right to Lodge a Complaint

An individual may lodge a complaint with their local supervisory authority. A list of supervisory authorities, correct at the time of publication of this Notice, may be found here.

How to Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about DinCare’s privacy practices, or wish to exercise any of your rights and choices as described in this Notice, you can contact us using any of the following methods. Please include your contact details and a detailed description of your request or privacy concern:

Email: gdpr@dincare.com

By mail to our Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer
DinCare AS
Industriveien 11A
2020 Skedsmokorset
Norway

Branches in the EU

Office in Sweden: Herkulesgatan 3 A, 417 03 Göteborg, Sweden

Office in Germany: Kruppstraße 112, 60388 Frankfurt am Main, Germany