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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

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your cell phone could easily call for help in a crash without the car being involved at all.

Not if I'm unconscious?

Other drivers will phone it in. This isn't a concern for me at all, but I suppose it could be if you lived in a low population area.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#173

And the DMV (Department of Motor vehicle Services) has also sold registration data. In California, and Texas, they have been fined for this - I'm unsure they aren't completely barred from using a loophole to still do that. This is why I'm a vocal advocate for having an LLC own any vehicles you might drive. It protects you from the license-plate reading lookup as well from Flock et all. Though I don't know it guarante…

It won't protect you from the insurance agencies; they demand a DL ID# and a VIN. And you are required by law to purchase from them. And they're stautorily exempted from a whole boatload of privacy laws, like HIPAA.

They don't ask for license plates. At least through a camera tech like Flock, it isn't super easy to pick up a vin. So thinking this through more, at least having an insurance agency have your vin isn't as bad as having a flock & flock affiliated agency have your license plate - because if flock & flock affiliated dont have your vin they may never have the vin to find you via insurance company.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find the telematic's antenna, and put a 50ohm resistor across it. It can scream into it's own private void.

I Have No Antenna, and I Must Transmit.

I am stealing this for the name of my first album.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if I'm unconscious?

iPhones actually can. I'm guessing some Androids have an equivalent.

Apple Watch for sure. It seems like you have been in an accident. Hit this button to cancel or EMS will be called.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#177
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're implying the stub of an exposed coax inside a faraday cage is capable of establishing a link with cell towers. This doesn't really pass fermi tests and I've never observed it myself, just read the paranoid concerns of people online. Regardless, taping some foil around the connectors with the foil making okay contact with the metal chassis is more than enough attenuation at sub GHz microwave to remove this conc…

Best to use a termination, to avoid the power that would have gone into the antenna from reflecting back into the transmitter output and damaging the output driver transistors. Damage is no bad thing if you do want to permanently disable the transmitter, but not so good if you want it to be reversible. Chances of damage due to reflections is probably low given the relatively low power being transmitted, but best not…

I agree it's a good practice. However in this case I consider the possibility of frying the amplifier a knock-on benefit. The fucking thing should have never been made.

If a hypothetical future owner feels strongly about it then replacing a telematics module in the dash is much easier than replacing harness runs. I somehow doubt I would sell one of my vehicles to someone who would do that though.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#178

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…

The most horrible part this crime is I read somewhere That the amount the car companies get for spying on your locations is some pathetic paltry amount like $1-$5 one time. These car companies sell you out to insurance companies and such so they can collect data and use it AGAINST you. Ghouls everywhere now.

Random Public data:

Honda sold data on roughly 97,000 cars to Verisk for $25,920—amounting to about 26 cents per car.

Hyundai sold data on about 1.7 million vehicles for roughly $1 million—about 61 cents per car

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#179

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…

The most horrible part this crime is I read somewhere That the amount the car companies get for spying on your locations is some pathetic paltry amount like $1-$5 one time. These car companies sell you out to insurance companies and such so they can collect data and use it AGAINST you. Ghouls everywhere now. Random Public data: Honda sold data on roughly 97,000 cars to Verisk for $25,920—amounting to about 26 cents p…

That doesn’t smell right. Why develop the telemetry and go to all of the trouble for such a paltry return? That probably wouldn’t even cover the legal consulation to cover their ass, much less go through the trouble of implementing and selling the telemetry.

It would be cheaper to do nothing if that were true.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#180
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple: don't own a vehicle with this capability.

Much like owning a home without an HOA attached, it is becoming harder and harder to meet this requirement. It also seems to conflict with `right-to-repair` laws if the capability is legally required.

It really isn't. FB Marketplace is literally awash in perfectly serviceable vehicles that don't and can't phone home. For the budget conscious among us it's also significantly cheaper to buy a "clapped out" used older car and refresh the drive train than buying new or late model.
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