New Mozilla research has revealed that popular global car brands — like Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota, Kia, Audi, Jeep, Honda, Volkswagen, and more — are collecting your deeply personal data, like your genetic information and sexual activity.
Nowadays, our cars are anything but a private space — they are full blown data collection nightmares on wheels.
New Mozilla research has revealed that popular global car brands — like Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota, Kia, Audi, Jeep, Honda, Volkswagen, and more — are collecting your deeply personal data, like your genetic information and sexual activity. This invasive harvesting of information is collected via a web of sensors, microphones, cameras and the phones, apps, and connected services you use in your vehicle.
Car companies are brazenly collecting deeply personal information about people the moment they get into a car, often without explicit consent to do so. And that’s why the Mozilla community is now coming together to force car companies to respect our right to privacy. Add your name to ask car companies to stop collecting, sharing and selling our very personal information.
Find out more about our research on cars in the official launch blog post.
Possibly. But wire cutters exist. Installing custom firmware for a car seems unnecessarily dangerous. Just remove the fuse, cut a wire or go to a local shop and get the comms system disabled.
Which would mean that, again, every time you enter a tunnel your car goes up in flames? I don’t know what you guys wanna tell me here but what you’re saying is bullshit.
It’s not bullshit, you just don’t know what you’re talking about. It won’t burst into flames but some features may not work, it may not charge at public stations, or it may just not move at all.
Not a viable solution since this will likely result in your entire infotainment system or other features being unusable. Not having the radio in your car work or not having safety features work would suck.
Oh no tapes tablet to car. Anyways, why would you entire infotainment system not work? You would just have no internet connection. Radio doesn’t work, yes, however most sane humans stream music anyways which is possible via bluetooth or, in case the comms module would also disable bluetooth, cable. Your choice, private sex life or ✨features✨.
Because that’s how they wire the cars. It’s like when you block shit with pihole and it breaks basic functionality. At least with pihole you can fine tune which domains you block. When you cut a wire, you power down the entire thing.
Guess what happens when you connect your phone to your car via bluetooth? Data collection! Most of the data collection happens from phones bro. You’re literally better off leaving the car alone and simply NEVER connecting your phone, unless it’s with an aux cable.
You don’t have to lecture me about privacy vs. Features. I fully get it. I value privacy very much. All I’m saying is that it will likely fuck up car features that you want if you randomly start cutting cables.
Most of the data collection does not happen from my phone bRoO. I use Graphene and if I don’t give my foss music app access to the internet, the app can collect as much data as it wants. Besides, what do I care if someone knows what music I listen to if in comparison the car manufacturer, who I likely gave my personal information to first hand, knows things far more private. I don’t have sex in my car, but if I did I would much rather have them know that I listen to “I’m a barbie girl” on repeat. And I doubt that cutting off connection will brick your car. If that was the case, my car would brick almost every time I enter a tunnel. The car does not check for connections like an effing website. If the comms were to be completely disabled or one would remove a fuse, sure. Your car might refuse to start, throw an error what have you. But if you simply remove the antenna, all bueno. Wanna know why they don’t refuse service without a connection? Because people would regularly die which makes this behaviour illegal :). And I do have to lecture you, as you seem to have a lot to learn and I don’t see a reason why anybody should put their pride first. I mean don’t even know anybody on here.
Oh and I did not say to randomly cut cables. I said to cut antennas. Do not under any circumstance cut a cable. It might be the windshield wipers or it might be a sensor for abs. You are absolutely correct that this is the worst idea one could have if they value their life. Well I mean no life means no privacy concerns.
Well, never downvoted my own comment before. Other points still stand. And yes, just to make sure, to anyone reading, do not just randomly start cutting wires.
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Is there such a thing as open source vehicle system software?
I haven’t heard of any - and if there were I bet you the car companies would do everything they can to prevent you from installing it.
Possibly. But wire cutters exist. Installing custom firmware for a car seems unnecessarily dangerous. Just remove the fuse, cut a wire or go to a local shop and get the comms system disabled.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Some cars will not function properly without a cellular connection. They’re designed that way.
Which would mean that, again, every time you enter a tunnel your car goes up in flames? I don’t know what you guys wanna tell me here but what you’re saying is bullshit.
It’s not bullshit, you just don’t know what you’re talking about. It won’t burst into flames but some features may not work, it may not charge at public stations, or it may just not move at all.
Then there’s a lot of the US that they’re not going to function properly in.
How is the location relevant?
Because some areas have poor to no cell reception
Yes that’s what I said
Cars don’t cease to function when driven in areas with little to no cell reception…
They certainly can if they’re designed that way.
Not a viable solution since this will likely result in your entire infotainment system or other features being unusable. Not having the radio in your car work or not having safety features work would suck.
Oh no tapes tablet to car. Anyways, why would you entire infotainment system not work? You would just have no internet connection. Radio doesn’t work, yes, however most sane humans stream music anyways which is possible via bluetooth or, in case the comms module would also disable bluetooth, cable. Your choice, private sex life or ✨features✨.
Because that’s how they wire the cars. It’s like when you block shit with pihole and it breaks basic functionality. At least with pihole you can fine tune which domains you block. When you cut a wire, you power down the entire thing.
Guess what happens when you connect your phone to your car via bluetooth? Data collection! Most of the data collection happens from phones bro. You’re literally better off leaving the car alone and simply NEVER connecting your phone, unless it’s with an aux cable.
You don’t have to lecture me about privacy vs. Features. I fully get it. I value privacy very much. All I’m saying is that it will likely fuck up car features that you want if you randomly start cutting cables.
Most of the data collection does not happen from my phone bRoO. I use Graphene and if I don’t give my foss music app access to the internet, the app can collect as much data as it wants. Besides, what do I care if someone knows what music I listen to if in comparison the car manufacturer, who I likely gave my personal information to first hand, knows things far more private. I don’t have sex in my car, but if I did I would much rather have them know that I listen to “I’m a barbie girl” on repeat. And I doubt that cutting off connection will brick your car. If that was the case, my car would brick almost every time I enter a tunnel. The car does not check for connections like an effing website. If the comms were to be completely disabled or one would remove a fuse, sure. Your car might refuse to start, throw an error what have you. But if you simply remove the antenna, all bueno. Wanna know why they don’t refuse service without a connection? Because people would regularly die which makes this behaviour illegal :). And I do have to lecture you, as you seem to have a lot to learn and I don’t see a reason why anybody should put their pride first. I mean don’t even know anybody on here.
Oh and I did not say to randomly cut cables. I said to cut antennas. Do not under any circumstance cut a cable. It might be the windshield wipers or it might be a sensor for abs. You are absolutely correct that this is the worst idea one could have if they value their life. Well I mean no life means no privacy concerns.
You literally said “cut a wire” in your original response…
Well, never downvoted my own comment before. Other points still stand. And yes, just to make sure, to anyone reading, do not just randomly start cutting wires.
You have paid for your sins in blood. You are cleansed.
Easier said than done when the car has an eSIM embedded who-knows-where
Which doesnt matter if the sim has no power.
How are you going to find the power supply if you don’t know where it is? It’s doubtful it will be on its own dedicated fuse supply.
If you can’t read your car’s repair manual, pay a mechanic to do it for you. I doubt they will say no. Almost every manufacturer has a rapair manual.