Millions of O2 users tracked in £600,000 government electric car study

The online activity of millions of O2 customers was monitored as part of a £600,000 government-commissioned study, it has been revealed.

The Department for Transport (DfT) asked the mobile operator — whose network includes Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile — to analyse more than 25 million devices to determine whether users visited electric vehicle (EV) websites at least twice a month.

Those identified as “EV users” had their mobile internet history and app usage records passed to the government to help provide “a comprehensive evaluation and understanding of the uptake and usage of electric vehicles”, The Telegraph reports.

As part of the two-year project, O2 examined customers’ web browsing history, including that of under-18s, to identify people engaging with EV content — including passengers as well as drivers.

Users’ physical movements around the country were also tracked. The data was then supplied to the government in an anonymised and “aggregated” form.

Details of the scheme emerged in a DfT report, with critics branding it evidence of “a surveillance state by stealth”.

The study was commissioned under the previous Conservative government and concluded before Labour took office in 2024.

A Labour source described the initiative as a “bizarre attempt to create a nanny state for motorists”.

Jake Hurfurt, head of research and investigations at campaign group Big Brother Watch, called the study “shocking”.

He said: “None of us would expect our mobile phone data to be packaged up and passed on to the government simply to conduct a study on how people use certain kinds of cars.”