Norwegian soldiers found video of themselves stored inside the rental cars they had been driving. The footage surfaced during Exercise Hovedstad, held September 14 to 18 around Oslo and Akershus with nearly 5,000 troops, and recorded personnel, routes, stops, how long people lingered at each site, and the key codes typed at military gates.
Lieutenant Fredrik Blanck told the newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv that crews used key cards alongside codes to pass through gates, and that this was captured on video. The recordings also stored pickups, drop-offs and driving patterns. Troops deleted what they could reach but could not establish whether copies had been sent anywhere else. Blanck raised a further concern: in-car microphones that may have picked up sensitive conversation.
At least two of the vehicles were Deepal models built by China’s Changan Automobile. The rental framework, signed in 2024 and running to May 2028, is worth up to NOK 350M and names First Rent A Car Norway, whose ownership chain reaches Zhejiang Geely Holding Group through Volvo Cars. Volvo says data cannot be shared with Geely without a legal basis.
Defence Minister Tore Onshuus Sandvik told parliament the ownership had been assessed and judged not to affect vehicle use.
