As automated vehicles (AVs) draw nearer to becoming an everyday reality, they bring forth a host of new ethical challenges. Among these, the protection of people’s right to privacy stands as a paramount concern for academia, manufacturers, and governments. AVs amass a wealth of data, encompassing personal information, driving habits, routes, and even behavioural cues, all of which are temporarily stored to ensure safe operation. However, this data accumulation poses security risks, including the potential for hacking or data breaches by AV companies or regulatory bodies. While Western countries primarily address privacy from an individual rights perspective, Confucian ethics present a contrasting viewpoint. Grounded in virtue ethics, Confucianism regards privacy protection as a virtue to be nurtured in daily life. This paper proposes several ethical guidelines rooted in Confucian thought for safeguarding privacy. These include promoting a trust-based culture in the AV sector, data collection and use transparency, obtaining collective consent for personal data use, and anonymized and encrypted data processing. The paper concludes with a comparative analysis of Confucian and Western concepts of privacy protection, asserting that Confucian ethics offer a valuable perspective on privacy protection in the context of AVs.