'Big Mistake': Swanand Kirkire Alleges Toyota Shared Personal Data Leading To Spam Calls, Company Responds

Lyricist, actor and singer, Swanand Kirkire has reignited the conversation about data privacy and the menace of spam calls after calling out Toyota India. In a viral social media post, Kirkire alleged that the Japanese automaker had shared his personal contact details with insurance companies after he bought one of the cars. As a result, the artist was flooded with unsolicited calls on his phone, making for an unpleasant experience.

"Big mistake I made, buying your car, @Toyota_India," wrote Kirkire in an X (formerly Twitter) post, adding: "You shared my phone number with several insurance companies, and now all I do is answer endless sales calls while trying to remain polite, because I know there's no point screaming at or insulting your underpaid and exploited employees."

The singer also questioned the carmaker about why they needed to sell the customer data when they were making a good profit selling the cars. "Don't you make enough profit selling cars already? Why sell your customers' data too?" he said.

As the post gained traction, Toyota expressed regret over the inconvenience and sought Kirkire's contact details to manage the situation. 

"Dear Swanand, we regret the inconvenience caused. Kindly share your registered contact number and dealership details via DM so our team can reach out to you at the earliest."

Big mistake I made — buying your car, @Toyota_India. You shared my phone number with several insurance companies, and now all I do is answer endless sales calls while trying to remain polite, because I know there's no point screaming at or insulting your underpaid and exploited…

— Swanand Kirkire (@swanandkirkire) May 7, 2026

In a follow-up post, Kirkire stated that a Toyota representative got in touch with him and explained that the company had already filed a case regarding the data leaks.

"The update is that Toyota Motors @Toyota_India themselves have apparently filed a case regarding these data leaks, which, it seems, even they don't fully understand how they are happening."

The update is that Toyota Motors @Toyota_India themselves have apparently filed a case regarding these data leaks , which, it seems, even they don't fully understand how they are happening. To be fair, they haven't clearly mentioned the case or the court proceedings publicly,…

— Swanand Kirkire (@swanandkirkire) May 7, 2026

Kirkire noted that while Toyota hadn't explicitly addressed the specific case, he was accepting their explanation. He added that he had received no further intrusive sales calls since his social media post.