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Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

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Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#61
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that's terrible advice. Learning to ignore safety warnings is an amazing way to wind up stranded or with a destroyed car because you decided to ignore a warning light

The first 100yr of automobiles didn't have TPMS and it was mostly fine.

I mean if you consider that death rate per mile driven 'mostly fine'

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#62
post #43

There is spying and there is spying Back in august IDF banned Chinese cars from entering bases https://www.jns.org/report-idf-bans-chinese-cars-from-bases-... And now banned then from used by officers https://securityboulevard.com/2025/11/why-israel-just-banned... I wonder what IDF knows

Tesla cars to be banned from Chinese government buildings amid security fears.

I wonder what China knows :)

https://www.drive.com.au/news/tesla-vehicles-to-face-entry-b...

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#63
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving to the EU becomes a more appealing option every day.

In the EU, eCall is mandatory and disabling it fails most roadworthiness checks and voids most insurance policies, so it doesn't help much. Also, while the EU does (for now) have stronger privacy protections for citizens against corporate interests, the opposite is true in most EU countries for Government surveillance.

eCall has very strong privacy protections, see Article 6: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2015/758/oj

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#64
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first 100yr of automobiles didn't have TPMS and it was mostly fine.

I mean if you consider that death rate per mile driven 'mostly fine'

Check your tire pressures when you get gas, along with your oil and other fluid levels. Eyeball the tires every time you get in the car. These habits are not hard to develop and they will work even when the sensors malfunction (which is not infrequently).

All that these sensor-based systems do is train you to be an inattentive car owner.

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok stop with the panicking. What's wrong with GPS in vehicles? If it's not connected to the internet, there is no issue. What's wrong with playing music from the phone on Bluetooth or Aux? Did you also know you can ride a horse instead of a car? Bluetooth and WiFi isn't running if you turned them off. Bluetooth also isn't really used for tracking unless someone is looking for you or you're part of some service like A…

If it's not connected to the internet, there is no issue. It's connected to the Internet. Every car has a SIM card now.

>It's connected to the Internet. Every car has a SIM card now.

Maybe every new car, but the average car is 13 years old, and the OP made no clarification on whether his advice was for only new cars, or for a 2015 econobox as well.

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#66
post #29
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over half of New York City households are car-free. That jumps to 3/4 in Manhattan. Millions of American households don’t have a car, but you rarely hear about it as a viable option.

Because as soon as you leave a major metropolitan area, not having a car is almost a nonstarter.

It's the same in Europe, but people pushing an agenda don't talk about that either.

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#67

A 2013 Chevy Volt has a camera on the dashboard pointed at the driver. The entertainment dashboard has a dozen communication options, including those for safety? Zealots and the unhinged will quickly comment no doubt, but for the rational citizens I ask, when was this normalized? Was it automakers emboldened by the acceptance of cell phone central record keeping?

"Safety" is a magic word like "god" was a thousand years ago. If you say it just right you can manufacture an excuse to do all sorts of stuff that'll clearly lead to bad stuff if left to run. They undoubtably said things like "if it saves even one person from falling asleep at the wheel it's worth it" or something along those lines.

this is still a technology advancement... what if smartphone usage or asleep safely stops the car? what if this run locally? or what if it's linked to public entities that will add penalty points to your license?

as a cyclist and public transport user with no driver license, i hope personal vehicles have so much sensors that they can detect if you are drunk or stressed and limit your reaches. fuck your metallic beetle

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#68

Remove the antennas. Do not give in to the mirage of convenience. Use a stand alone generic GPS. Vehicle GPS devices are anti privacy for so many reasons. Listen to stored music from an SD card if terrestrial radio (NO SATELLITE). Did you know almost ALL late model cars can play a TURN YOUR PHONE OFF. Your phone does more than track you - the Bluetooth and wifi beacon scanners are always running. When you come across…

>Do not give in to the mirage of convenience.

I sympathise. However, being able to start de-icing my car while still in bed at 5:30 on a January morning is a powerful feature. And I'm the kind of person who wraps his tin foil hat no less than 10 layers thick.

Ideally this shouldn't involve the internet, because the car is in wifi range, but what can I do about it?

Re: Modern cars are spying on you. Here's what you can do about it

#69

Disabling the hardware can be really hard, my 2025 Toyota Sienna is always connected. You can't just pull a fuse or rip out an antenna, I have to take the entire dashboard apart to reach the Data Communication Module (DCM) module. If anyone's curious what that looks like, it's a little bit easier on the Toyota Tacoma, here are some pictures of the process: https://www.tacoma4g.com/forum/threads/disabling-dcm-telemat.…

On a 2021 Camry there is an below-dash fuse labeled "DCM" which you can remove (and it does disable OnStar/telemetry, but not sat.radio[0]) — it also disables one of the speakers (used for phone calls), which there is a bypass to resolve (but it still requires removing infotainment, so at that point just unplug it there.?!).

[0] It was my understanding that, like GPS-receivers, Sirius/XM was one-way streaming, only..?

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