Many of us know how bad modern cars are for privacy. Yet many of our friends and neighbors do not realize how intrusive it really is. I linked a blog entry from Mozilla’s investigation about car privacy. In that blog is a link to their make-by-make analysis. The amount of very intimate information a modern car collects is honestly appalling. It includes health data, real time mood information, weight gain or loss, and so on. And it does so even for passengers.
The web has many resources talking about this problem, but almost no resources on what to do about it. I know the simple thing is to say, “just drive an old car bro!” That’s fine if you can, but not everyone can. Also it has drawbacks like more maintenance. Sometimes less safety if it’s older than certain safety features. For the purpose of this thread, it is more interesting to focus on newer, surveillance enabled cars which are the majority of what people drive on the road today.
Some people have figured out how to bypass the surveillance package on some cars. One way is to uncouple the antenna it uses to phone home. Other times you can bypass the telematics module or remove a fuse that powers it. I feel like we really need a central model by model repository of information.
Past that, how do we prove it has worked, if we do it? Has anyone reading this tried to use an RF detector to see if their car is still trying to phone home, after they have bypassed telematics? What are your experiences? I want to buy one and use it to test my own car, but the info on the web seems sketch.
Depends entirely on your car make and model. On many models you can disconnect or remove the fuse for the telematics control unit (TCU) and it’s as simple as that. However you won’t receive any OTA updates that will likely solve problems. And if you reconnect to get them, there’s no guarantee your car doesn’t suddenly dump all your personal data obtained in the meantime onto company servers. Further I find it more and more likely that OEMs either already have or will add a ToS that requires you to keep all this stuff connected, and they’ll argue that the data collection is part of the sale.
Slate seems to be the only brand currently that intends to deliver vehicles with zero connectivity required.
Do you mean these guys? That’s the first I heard of them so thank you for that! I thought it would turn out to be a European make, but they’re on my side of the pond. A zero-connectivity electric car would be the dream. I like the idea of electric cars but so far they have all been even more wrapped up in telematics than internal combustion cars.
Yes, zero connectivity, relatively affordable, highly customizeable, and repair-friendly (for now). The only connectivity is through the phone app. Only downside is you have to buy a stupid truck. They could have made it a lot cheaper as a coupe.
Maybe if it sees market success, they’ll branch out into other body styles. I want a car too, not a truck.
That would be nice. But then I’d be driving around in my stupid truck like an idiot!
Jeff Bezos is a named investor of Slate, so i wouldn’t trust it
Would you like to recommend another brand that has zero data connection and also isn’t invested with Bezos?
that’s an aggressive response to a simple fact being stated
It’s a good point. Also I wonder if OBD-II can do that. A person could disable the port, but that may make it hard / impossible to get the vehicle serviced.
Yeah OBD is the main diagnostic port so that would certainly cause problems LOL
There is a private mode in my Kia Ev3, but yeah, It disables almost everything.
What are the chances that it’s just lying? Or re-enables itself periodically?