Vehicle Trackers Fail to Aid Stolen Car Recovery, Experts Warn

People should not expect vehicle trackers to be able to help them if their car is stolen, experts have warned.

Car safety firm Thatcham Research said there was a "genuine and growing gap" between consumer expectation and the technical reality of so-called connected car features.

Ian Fogg, a technology analyst at FDM CSS, said his car was stolen from outside his house in March, but he has not been able to retrieve it - despite the manufacturer, Kia, being able to view its live location via the Kia Connect service.

The company told the BBC that UK law prevented the Connect function being used to live track vehicles, advising customers to use it for "convenience" rather than security.

Fogg told BBC News: "This car was incredibly easy to hack but incredibly difficult to track, it shouldn't be this easy to nick a car when they cost an order of magnitude more than a phone and have similar radio technology".

He had video doorbell evidence of it being driven away, an Apple Airtag hidden inside it, and the Kia Connect service.

His story is a cautionary tale of how tech can promise security but cannot necessarily be relied upon in the event of a crisis.

He was abroad in March this year when his phone pinged to say he no longer had access to the Kia Connect app.

Thieves had broken into the vehicle without having the keys, and had disconnected Fogg's phone via the entertainment system.

There is an unsecured process for doing this, designed to make it easier for new owners to take over from previous ones.

He watched the car drive off via his video doorbell. For a short while he was able to track it via an Apple Airtag hidden inside it, until the thieves located it and discarded it because it was making a noise - a feature introduced by Apple to combat stalking.

On its website Kia Connect advises customers to contact it in the event of a theft.

But when he did, Fogg was told he would have to fill in a form every time he requested the location of his car.

He did this eight times, and each time he did not receive the location until 24-48 hours after the car had been recorded there.

Its last location was in Lithuania.

"Kia Connect is a customer convenience feature, not a certified security vehicle tracker," the firm told the BBC.

"Therefore, it does not provide live‑tracking functionality for stolen vehicles.

"Release of location details of a vehicle via Kia Connect is possible, however this must be done in full compliance with all applicable laws, in particular GDPR, and the authorities to minimise risk to the customer."

GDPR is Europe's data protection law, and an almost-identical version applies in the UK.

According to the Information Commissioner's Office, Britain's data regulator, users have the right to access their information and organisations need to respond to the request from someone who can be identified from personal data within one calendar month.

In the event of standard vehicle theft, the police have no formal powers to demand this data without specific consent from the Home Office, which is rarely sought on these occasions, the BBC understands.

It is up to individual car manufacturers to share data with law enforcement depending on their own policies.

Kia does offer a security vehicle tracking service in the US to subscribers who take out its premium package, but this is not available in the UK or Europe.