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Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

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Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#81

Post by aceazzameen »

torginus wrote: post #76
bitparadox wrote: post #34

I posted a flavor of this comment on an article a few months ago, but it's relevant here: I have a seven year old Volkswagen, not financed. I'm security conscious and made sure to disable all the data collection I could find in the companion app before removing my account, turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could, etc. Last year I requested a Carfax on it, and one of the…

Tangential, but one of the concerns I have about these 'smart' cars is they have an expiration deadline. There's an exceedingly common type of failure I have seen myself in industrial electronics and (has happened with Tesla at least once), that some module keeps a log of some kind in a nonvolatile flash, and this flash has a limited lifecycle, which the equipment reaches at some years into its life (or earlier, if t…

They've become cell phones on wheels. I'm disappointed with what vehicles (and phones too!) have become.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#83

Post by wwweston »

otterley wrote: post #75
bookofjoe wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Resistance is futile." See also: LG TVs, etc.

It’s not futile. Write your congressperson and state representatives. If enough people do this around the country, laws will eventually be passed to prevent it.

This is why there are moral panics about things people feel in their guts: most people are reasonably easily unsettled and distracted by queer people, people who look different, people their people don’t trust being in charge.

It works. Most people are happier focusing and holding forth on that and repeating familiar statements than they are talking to congressional staff about policy.

Your car that you paid a lot for and you like and have positive useful experiences with every day? That’s going to be way farther down the list of things to worry about.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#84

Post by trevithick »

glitchcrab wrote: post #68
noman-land wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try finding the fuse and pulling it. It will be in the manual.

I would be very surprised if it was that simple - systems in modern cars are so interlinked that I would expect that pulling a fuse would cause something else to break, resulting in dash lights or broken functionality.

It's possible to find workarounds for things like this. One example: https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/69018.html

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#86

Post by fhdkweig »

derwiki wrote: post #18
WarmWash wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sucks is that at least with my car, if you pull their access, you also lose all your remote access as well, and the ability to receive updates.

Why do you need remote access to your car? What updates does your car need?

> What updates does you car need?

These cars are more software than hardware now. And like everything else in the software industry, every product gets released incomplete and patched later.

Although the correct solution would be a USB port somewhere to insert a patch file rather that over-the-air updates that might happen while driving.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#87

Post by samsullivan »

bitparadox wrote: post #34

I posted a flavor of this comment on an article a few months ago, but it's relevant here: I have a seven year old Volkswagen, not financed. I'm security conscious and made sure to disable all the data collection I could find in the companion app before removing my account, turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could, etc. Last year I requested a Carfax on it, and one of the…

Your mileage went from VW->telematics vendor->broker->carfax, thats the chain it usually follows. The fuse stops it but the real issue is the owner is the only one without the record.

You could probably find some interesting info if you send out some privacy requests through the chain. LexisNexis and Verisk are consumer reporting agencies, so they have to provide you a disclosure on request. Start there.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#88

Post by taraindara »

aceazzameen wrote: post #81
torginus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangential, but one of the concerns I have about these 'smart' cars is they have an expiration deadline. There's an exceedingly common type of failure I have seen myself in industrial electronics and (has happened with Tesla at least once), that some module keeps a log of some kind in a nonvolatile flash, and this flash has a limited lifecycle, which the equipment reaches at some years into its life (or earlier, if t…

They've become cell phones on wheels. I'm disappointed with what vehicles (and phones too!) have become.

I share the sentiment. I want a new car, but only if I can guarantee all telemetry is hard disabled. But I don’t have the kind of money to buy a new car and risk bricking it. Luckily I’m pretty handy, so I’ll have to keep my 2014< cars forcefully running as long as I can.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#89

Post by mistrial9 »

morkalork wrote: post #79
glitchcrab wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if it was that simple - systems in modern cars are so interlinked that I would expect that pulling a fuse would cause something else to break, resulting in dash lights or broken functionality.

In my car it's on the same circuit as the infotainment system which does kinda make sense but also, damn them.

> it's on the same circuit as the infotainment system

isn't it not-funny that the super-invasive Google profiling and ID checks are also part of "Google Play" ?

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#90

Post by willis936 »

chneu wrote: post #67
willis936 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had good luck with pulling service manuals, finding the telematics antenna connectors, and unplugging them. It's popular to pull the telematics module fuse, but that typically disables internal microphones and GPS that are used by android auto and carplay. This severely degrades features spouses expect to just work. The antenna pulling is a much lighter touch.

The amount of times I see "I'd like to do the right thing but my spouse isn't on board" is mind boggling. It's wild how convenience trumps everything and then we look back to say, "we should have done better."

Okay it's a red herring here. I also like to use carplay and the phone's GPS is truly awful to use. I also like to dictate texts and take calls in my car. These are things that don't need to be sacrificed if a scalpel is used in place of a butcher's knife.

Sometimes it helps to have someone with their priorities in order keeping a reality check on people who don't always stay grounded.

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