Dashcams in rental cars used by the Norwegian army reportedly recorded soldiers during an exercise in Oslo, including gate codes typed in view of the lens. The claim comes from reporting by Militaryni, which we could not independently confirm. The source material contains no response from the Norwegian military, First Rent A Car Norway, Hertz or Volvo.
According to that reporting, the clips showed troops getting in and out of the cars, their movements and locations, and the codes they entered. The cameras were standard dashcams that soldiers had left switched on, so footage piled up unreviewed. Soldiers found it by chance while browsing the vehicle menus, then deleted it. The military kept using the cars anyway because it had few alternatives.
The China angle comes from ownership. The army rents from First Rent A Car Norway AS, a Hertz-branded operator now fully owned by Volvo Cars. About 79% of Volvo Cars sits with Geely's Swedish holding arm, which is controlled by China-based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Only two of the vehicles are confirmed as Chinese-made Deepals; the rest are unnamed.
Our read: this is first a story about operational hygiene. A camera left recording and a keypad typed in front of it would be a problem in any car from any maker. The ownership chain raises the stakes, but it does not show intent, and the source says no evidence has emerged that any recording left the vehicles.
The wider worry is not imaginary. Norway's Police Security Service says Chinese intelligence agencies now have more capacity to operate in the country, and police recently detained a Chinese citizen suspected of aiding espionage, possibly aimed at the Andøya spaceport. Israel has barred Chinese-made vehicles from its bases, and Germany has restricted phones and smartwatches for staff handling classified material. Those are separate policies, and none links Geely or the rental firm to these dashcams.
The open question is procurement: if a force with few spare vehicles has to rent civilian cars, who checks what is recording inside them before the exercise starts?