As more vehicles add Internet connectivity and location-based services, a need for law emerges to protect drivers' privacy, according to Ford CEO Alan Mulally.
Mulally was speaking at Detroit Auto Show where he said the company was "supportive and participating" in talks with regulators who are considering such laws.
"It's just really important that we have boundaries and guidelines to operate," Mulally told reporters at the show. "Our homes, the cars, everything is going to be on the Internet. Everything's going to be connected. And so what are the guidelines? What do we want?"
He also countered comments made by his global marketing chief who, at the CES 2014 in Las Vegas, said the company was keeping an eye through GPS data on drivers whenever they violated traffic norms.
"What he said was not right," Mulally said. "We do not track the vehicles. That's absolutely wrong. We would never track the vehicles. And we'd only send data to get map data if they agree that that's OK to do that, but we don't do anything with the data, we don't track it and we would never do that."
According to a study by consulting firm Accenture, technology is the top-selling attribute for 39 percent of the vehicle buyers presently.
Research from IHS Automotive has also suggested that the number of Internet connected cars worldwide is going to increase by sixfold to 152 million in 2020, compared to 23 million at present.
"We're in a connected world," Mulally said. "So this whole thing about our data, privacy, whatever; there's going to be a lot of good work done to establish guidelines and expectations. It's great that is happening now."
Ford, headquartered in Dearborn, is the second-largest U.S. based automaker.
