TheSun: "There's a spy in your Mercedes!"

Drivers who buy a Mercedes in the U.K. through a finance plan give their permission for the vehicle to be tracked when signing lengthy terms and conditions. What's really in the alleged Big Brother in your motor?

Mercedes dominates the UK car leasing market and sold more than 170,000 new cars in Britain last year, with an estimated 80 per cent of their new vehicles sold on finance plans.

According to the Sun, the secret sensor technology is not linked to either anti-theft Tracker devices or the online Mercedes Me service sold as optional extras by dealers.

Mercedes insists that relative terms are only activated when finance customers have defaulted on their payments. Such terms and conditions on the finance contracts, however, often go unread by the customers.

It's unknown how long the tracking devices have been put into use, but the German make admits sharing car owner info and vehicle location details with third-party bailiffs and recovery firms who repossess the cars.

Human rights group Liberty said such action is disturbing and part of the “creeping growth of surveillance”.

Karl Edwards, an owner of C200 AMG, was stunned to know about there's a tracker on his car.

He said: “It’s a shocking revelation and definitely gives a creepy uneasy feeling knowing somebody, somewhere can track me down at the touch of a button.” 

Mercedes Benz said sensors are not used to permanently track customers or access real-time data. The automaker added: “This clause in the finance contract is in bold print, just above the customer’s signature."

Mercedes’ rivals including BMW, Volkswagen and Jaguar Landrover have all said they do not carry out similar tracking.

We do live in a digital era where high-techs benefit us also track on us. It's only that we will still be in shock when knowing that another spy is lurking beside us when we drive to work, on the way home or speak ill of the boss in the cockpit. 

To be frank, this is not even a classic case of the Big Brother society. it's just what the firm has to do to keep track on the car being borrowed out. So when the car goes accidentally (or deliberately) missing, the firm will know where and how to find the car. But we do agree that it's necessary for huge corporations let their customers know clearly how their privacy and data will be kept and what is it for.