I wonder how hard it is to disable certain tacking “features” on a car. Could I simply remove the WiFi system, cut an antenna, or pull the power to a section?
Yes. At the very minimum you can locate the GSM transmitter and snip a few circuit board traces. It’s not simple by any means but as long as it’s not integrated into a monolithic chip it will be possible.
Fyi some auto makers will “disable” the data collection and upload, if you call them and tell them to for your vehicle. Now whether they actually are disabling it is another story entirely…
There are likely ways to “root” your car and take a look at exactly what is going on but I have no clue how.
An independent mechanic would probably do it. The dealer probably wouldn’t.
Disabling the modem would make any features that rely on Internet stop working. Could mess up the infotainment system. If the wire that powers the modem also powers the radio then you could lose that too. It will take trial and error to find the right wire and it’s different for every car.
That’s why I suggest using a switch instead of cutting it out completely, so if it breaks something you can turn it back on. This also helps to retain the value of the car since the next owner probably wants the modem on.
Are they talking about electric cars ? My car is Petrol and I only connect my phone via Bluetooth, what data can it possibly collect and doesnt it need an internet connection?
Not exactly. The nonsense right wing rage politics is a denial of service attack that has not been effectively countered in many decades. The USA has a tenth of the laws, protections, and regulations of any western country. The goal of the stupid politics is distraction. No effective discussion is possible when everyone is playing whack a mole. This is the entire strategy. It is very simple and effective. The goal is simply to keep all of the loopholes open so the parasitic billionaires can steal all the wealth and pay nothing for it. They have bought the government by playing the long game. We live in a neo feudal state as a result. Freedom and democracy are an illusion.
Fucking corporate feudalism bullshit. The US government has turned everyone into serfs again. We stepped back sociopolitical progress by 1000 years because of stupidity. We are officially the dumbest people in the last 1000 years. Future generations will despise everything about us and what we lost because we were to stupid to do anything about it.
It’s a problem, but I don’t think it’s as unsolvable as that. Figuring out how to overcome the strategies being used to divide us could rapidly repair the damage. Education, both in and out of school, is a crucial element of that. The ones frothing over “liberal tears” clearly don’t want to find common ground, so we would need to learn how they communicate and why they won’t listen, then find a strategy to break through that barrier and help them on their way to broader skepticism. In essence, once we cure the disease, we need to vaccinate them to mitigate the next outbreak.
There’s been some focus on this area of research. We have evidence that “strong men” rise to power by capitalizing on fear and anxiety. They set themselves up as a savior who will get rid of the scary problem by blaming someone/some group that is innocent but unknown (and therefore a suspicious stranger) to their base. They start with (comparatively) small lies and build trust among their following. Once the more suseptible slip into this form of groupthink, they’ll fall for bigger and bigger lies, and are very difficult to recover. The question is, how do we wake up they who scream of “sheeple” without an event so tragic it traumatizes an entire generation? The last few times involved massive wars or similarly harrowing events. Events so massive they dissillusioned the followers and forced them to confront the fact that they got played by a charismatic (to them) narcissist with a superiority complex.
Unless we can figure out how to snap these people put of it relatively peacefully, we’re most likely going to be in for a really, really bad time before it gets better. With any luck, at least in the US, maybe Trump will get thrown in prison and the Republican party’s leadership will turn on Trumpism or collapse before they can take control. Maybe if their chosen authority figure is imprisoned and disowned by their team they’ll be able to see clearly again.
that thing literally forgets what time it is when i diconnect the battery, i don’t think it’s connecting to any servers. plus it was 10.000€, there’s no way it had that feature.
In my case I’m pretty sure it’s a safe car in that respect. No remote communication module in the car and the dealer has no access to the software as well. I do my own maintenance and have been doing it for 5 years. The only camera that’s in it is the dashcam I fitted. No drivers assist that requires camera’s, no adaptive cruise control, not even a reverse camera for parking, just sensors. I’ve got no clue how it is with the next generation though.
Weirdest thing on this point is that my employer doesn’t want camera’s on the terrain around the buildings, but loads of contractors with Teslas can just park where they want…
BOSTON (AP) — Most major car manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information — though they are vague on the buyers, a new study finds, and half say they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.
Cars scored worst for privacy among more than a dozen product categories — including fitness trackers, reproductive-health apps, smart speakers and other connected home appliances — that Mozilla has studied since 2017.
Spokesman Brian Weiss said that for safety reasons the group “has concerns” about letting customers completely opt out — but does endorse giving them greater control over how the data is used in marketing and by third parties.
Japan-based Nissan astounded researchers with the level of honesty and detailed breakdowns of data collection its privacy notice provides, a stark contrast with Big Tech companies such as Facebook or Google.
Further, Nissan says it can share “inferences” drawn from the data to create profiles “reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”
If an owner opts out of data collection, Tesla’s privacy notice says the company may not be able to notify drivers “in real time” of issues that could result in “reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.”
The original article contains 956 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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I wonder how hard it is to disable certain tacking “features” on a car. Could I simply remove the WiFi system, cut an antenna, or pull the power to a section?
Yes. At the very minimum you can locate the GSM transmitter and snip a few circuit board traces. It’s not simple by any means but as long as it’s not integrated into a monolithic chip it will be possible.
The only issue is your entire infotainment system including the radio will probably stop working.
Darn. I might be willing to take that loss, assuming I can keep the speakers and A/C.
Fyi some auto makers will “disable” the data collection and upload, if you call them and tell them to for your vehicle. Now whether they actually are disabling it is another story entirely…
There are likely ways to “root” your car and take a look at exactly what is going on but I have no clue how.
Find the wire powering the cellular modem and add a switch. Without the cellular modem on there’s no way for the car to phone home.
I’m assuming a local car shop will refuse to do this for you?
Would there be any functionality side effects of doing this?
An independent mechanic would probably do it. The dealer probably wouldn’t.
Disabling the modem would make any features that rely on Internet stop working. Could mess up the infotainment system. If the wire that powers the modem also powers the radio then you could lose that too. It will take trial and error to find the right wire and it’s different for every car.
That’s why I suggest using a switch instead of cutting it out completely, so if it breaks something you can turn it back on. This also helps to retain the value of the car since the next owner probably wants the modem on.
Oh yeah, I meant an independent shop, not the official dealer. Thx for the info though. It’s digusting that cars collect so much.
I found out that my car uploads driving metrics to the manufacturer constantly, including speed, braking metrics, nav info, etc.
Are they talking about electric cars ? My car is Petrol and I only connect my phone via Bluetooth, what data can it possibly collect and doesnt it need an internet connection?
Read the article?
No
Interesting how many car privacy articles popped out suddenly.
Hopefully they’ll get slapped with a fat GDPR fine
Let’s hope so, but up to now I haven’t heard anything about car privacy and GDPR/DMA/DSA
Ans there’s even no Chinese brands… Will be even much worse!
How is this even legal in the first place?
Because the US government is run by like 80 year old boomers who don’t even know how to use a cell phone, let alone regulate data collection.
Not exactly. The nonsense right wing rage politics is a denial of service attack that has not been effectively countered in many decades. The USA has a tenth of the laws, protections, and regulations of any western country. The goal of the stupid politics is distraction. No effective discussion is possible when everyone is playing whack a mole. This is the entire strategy. It is very simple and effective. The goal is simply to keep all of the loopholes open so the parasitic billionaires can steal all the wealth and pay nothing for it. They have bought the government by playing the long game. We live in a neo feudal state as a result. Freedom and democracy are an illusion.
This is also true.
Because we live in capitalist oligarchies masquerading as “democracies”.
This article and a few others are based on This report from Mozilla. It’s nice to see some major news sites picking up on this.
Fucking corporate feudalism bullshit. The US government has turned everyone into serfs again. We stepped back sociopolitical progress by 1000 years because of stupidity. We are officially the dumbest people in the last 1000 years. Future generations will despise everything about us and what we lost because we were to stupid to do anything about it.
It’s a problem, but I don’t think it’s as unsolvable as that. Figuring out how to overcome the strategies being used to divide us could rapidly repair the damage. Education, both in and out of school, is a crucial element of that. The ones frothing over “liberal tears” clearly don’t want to find common ground, so we would need to learn how they communicate and why they won’t listen, then find a strategy to break through that barrier and help them on their way to broader skepticism. In essence, once we cure the disease, we need to vaccinate them to mitigate the next outbreak.
There’s been some focus on this area of research. We have evidence that “strong men” rise to power by capitalizing on fear and anxiety. They set themselves up as a savior who will get rid of the scary problem by blaming someone/some group that is innocent but unknown (and therefore a suspicious stranger) to their base. They start with (comparatively) small lies and build trust among their following. Once the more suseptible slip into this form of groupthink, they’ll fall for bigger and bigger lies, and are very difficult to recover. The question is, how do we wake up they who scream of “sheeple” without an event so tragic it traumatizes an entire generation? The last few times involved massive wars or similarly harrowing events. Events so massive they dissillusioned the followers and forced them to confront the fact that they got played by a charismatic (to them) narcissist with a superiority complex.
Unless we can figure out how to snap these people put of it relatively peacefully, we’re most likely going to be in for a really, really bad time before it gets better. With any luck, at least in the US, maybe Trump will get thrown in prison and the Republican party’s leadership will turn on Trumpism or collapse before they can take control. Maybe if their chosen authority figure is imprisoned and disowned by their team they’ll be able to see clearly again.
Tesla: “But that’s the sole reason we make cars in the first place!”
thank god my car is a 2002 with no way to connect to anything. i will not buy another car until collecting data on drivers is illegal.
yes i can do that, i drive a toyota. that thing will last until the end of civilization.
OnStar has been a thing in vehicles from several automakers since 1996. Do not assume. Do some research and be sure.
that thing literally forgets what time it is when i diconnect the battery, i don’t think it’s connecting to any servers. plus it was 10.000€, there’s no way it had that feature.
Ah, ok, then I’m good with my '03 Volvo. It’s a GM remote diagnostic software bundle. No remote and no GM… That’s useful.
I just don’t want people to have a false sense of security just because their cars are older.
In my case I’m pretty sure it’s a safe car in that respect. No remote communication module in the car and the dealer has no access to the software as well. I do my own maintenance and have been doing it for 5 years. The only camera that’s in it is the dashcam I fitted. No drivers assist that requires camera’s, no adaptive cruise control, not even a reverse camera for parking, just sensors. I’ve got no clue how it is with the next generation though.
Weirdest thing on this point is that my employer doesn’t want camera’s on the terrain around the buildings, but loads of contractors with Teslas can just park where they want…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BOSTON (AP) — Most major car manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information — though they are vague on the buyers, a new study finds, and half say they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.
Cars scored worst for privacy among more than a dozen product categories — including fitness trackers, reproductive-health apps, smart speakers and other connected home appliances — that Mozilla has studied since 2017.
Spokesman Brian Weiss said that for safety reasons the group “has concerns” about letting customers completely opt out — but does endorse giving them greater control over how the data is used in marketing and by third parties.
Japan-based Nissan astounded researchers with the level of honesty and detailed breakdowns of data collection its privacy notice provides, a stark contrast with Big Tech companies such as Facebook or Google.
Further, Nissan says it can share “inferences” drawn from the data to create profiles “reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”
If an owner opts out of data collection, Tesla’s privacy notice says the company may not be able to notify drivers “in real time” of issues that could result in “reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.”
The original article contains 956 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Good bot!