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Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

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Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#231

Post by thisistheend123 »

mpol wrote: post #225
incompatible wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that nearly everybody knows this by now, and for those occasional times when burying a body or whatever, would leave the phone at home.

Down here there was a murder case recently. The suspect always replied prompt on his messages, except for the 2 hours during that murder. His phone was supposedly at home with him being out. There were many more juicy bits in that case, but this part is somewhat in the context of the discussion. The message seemed to be, plan better next time :)

Could you provide a link where I can read more details about it? .. thanks

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#232

Post by influx »

Barrin92 wrote: post #99
burrows wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, people are just imagining the NSA led global surveillance apparatus.

the NSA is certainly real, the likelihood of them bugging your car unless you're smuggling nuclear secrets is rather low the three letter agencies don't care about people who play video games and watch cat videos all day

If this is America, it would be the FBI who has jurisdiction. If this was outside America, CIA would be more likely to be installing hardware on a vehicle. If you hear the guys breathing on your phone line, that's probably the NSA ;)

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#233

Post by mpol »

thisistheend123 wrote: post #231
mpol wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Down here there was a murder case recently. The suspect always replied prompt on his messages, except for the 2 hours during that murder. His phone was supposedly at home with him being out. There were many more juicy bits in that case, but this part is somewhat in the context of the discussion. The message seemed to be, plan better next time :)

Could you provide a link where I can read more details about it? .. thanks

It is a case with many updated news articles as the story unfolded.

Here are 2 links in Dutch: https://www.destentor.nl/zwolle/de-gier-hangt-27-jaar-cel-bo... and https://www.destentor.nl/zwolle/de-gier-vrijgesproken-van-mo...

Aha, this is about the phone :) https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2089361/27-jaar-celstraf-geeis...

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#234

Post by thrdbndndn »

mdp2021 wrote: post #177
thrdbndndn wrote: post #84

Warning: all photos shot by Apple iPhone SE in your gist have GPS info. So.. yeah, this post may expose your location better than this device.

Hint that suggests a "world" where people keep the GPS connection on as standard practice. Which is perplexing on so many levels, not last that the GPS is one of the most energy costly services I know - consideration relevant between impact on battery life and general "keeping the lights on and the engine running when away".

They mostly don't really use actual GPS. Instead they use AGPS [1] tech that uses nearby hotspots, cellar signal triangulation etc. to get your location.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GNSS

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#235

Post by willcipriano »

wildrhythms wrote: post #204
willcipriano wrote: post #18

First hit on DDG for "PL884-200" is a asset tracker: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22PL884-200%22&t=fpas&ia=web Perhaps this is a part of one of those units? They have "hard wired" as a option on the site, but it's greyed out. Speculation: the site used to talk about a PL884-200 hardwire kit but they have since stopped selling it.

That 'first hit' (to the logistimatics result) appears to not contain the string 'PL884-200' anywhere on the page.

That's what my speciation covers. At some point the search engine decided that page is a good result for that string, the content may have shifted since then as it currently isn't, or perhaps someone is back linking to it with "PL884-200" in the href? Either way it's something a dealer would add after market to a car and it has some connection to PL884-200.

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#236

Post by markhahn »

worker767424 wrote: post #149
Barrin92 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the NSA is certainly real, the likelihood of them bugging your car unless you're smuggling nuclear secrets is rather low the three letter agencies don't care about people who play video games and watch cat videos all day

For several months, keyless entry stopped working on my car. It fixed itself. My unlikely conspiracy theory is I was being tracked and interference kept the keyfob from working.

never attribute to malice (or conspiracy) what can be explained by incompetence (or bugs).

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#237

Post by Gordonjcp »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #199
aaaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.customled.com/collections/brake-light-flashers-a...

That's pretty wild that this is sold as aftermarket. This is baked into VAG & BMW car products for at least the last 12 years, and it was on my 2015 S1000XR, but it'll only activate under hard braking scenarios. I don't know if i'd want this to activate for every brake press, at least here in the UK i've gotten used to the idea flashing brake lights = car ahead is braking very hard.

I've never seen flashing brake lights, but indicators flash on very hard braking. It first showed up on the first-gen Citroën C5, and was copied by everyone else after that. On the C5, it was part of the "emergency brake assist", which would basically work out that if you were doing an emergency stop, you really wanted to throw out the anchors and dump all the hydraulic pressure into the brakes.

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#238

Post by chaz6 »

aspectmin wrote: post #88

Ahh. Looks familiar. A dealer in the PNW installed one of these (without our knowledge) in a Honda CRV we purchased. Something about anti theft and vehicle recovery by finance, for all the cars on their lot. The car had all sorts of crazy power problems. Smart display would randomly crash, interior lights wouldn’t work, just… flakey. Called the dealer and demanded they remove this. Electrical problems went away insta…

That sounds like something that would invalidate an insurance policy and exposes the dealer to all sorts of liability.

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#239

Post by api »

hedora wrote: post #218
morpheuskafka wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it allowed for a dealer to cut wires and install a non OEM-approved electronic device onto the CAN bus? This seems like it would void all the manufacturer warranties and potentially create liability for the manufacturer if it malfunctions.

When we bought a brand new GMC, Dealer A installed a counterfeit backup camera. Half a tank of gas later, Dealer B claimed the warranty was void because of the camera. We brought it in because the radio kept freaking out and it would drain the battery if left off over night. There was an active recall for both those issues. Dealer C fixed them by installing a firmware update.

Has anyone ever had an actual good experience with an auto dealer?

Re: Help me identify possible tracking device found in my car

#240

Post by junga »

throwaheyy wrote: post #211
junga wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unable to find a source for this. Until now I thought heating up stationary is bad concerning all possible aspects, including emissions.

Seems to be caused by the period before the catalytic converter gets up to normal exhaust temperature. “Vehicles fitted with catalytic converters emit most of their total pollution during the first five minutes of engine operation; for example, before the catalytic converter has warmed up sufficiently to be fully effective.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter

Sure. But otoh the car is idling for tens of minutes maybe and possibly no single part of the engine and exhaust system is gaining the needed temperatures to operate cleanly. This means more emissions, more wear and more stressed out neighbours. I'm sure about the last one at least.
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