It’s perfectly legal for your car to taunt and harass you. What are you going to do ? sue your car!?
It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
121–130 of 177 posts
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> * If you use a rental car, Factory Reset the head unit when you leave. If I rent a car, I won't pair my phone at all, even going so far as to use a car charger instead of the provided USB ports.
Same. I imagine the risk of malicious USB ports is higher around military and aerospace rental hubs, like Colorado Springs and Huntsville, Alabama.
It is exactly because people like younger me exist in this world, that I operate under the assumption that all hardware that I have not personally maintained custody of is tampered with regardless of location.
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This data is cached on the head unit so that finding a contact to call or reading a text message doesn't require 10 minutes worth of Bluetooth nonsense. This is such an early 2000s idea. I'd much rather my car act as a dumb display that shows a copy of my phone screen then an intelligent agent that tries to replicate functionality already extant in my phone.
EXACTLY. This "infotainment" BS harks back to vastly overpriced stock car radios of years gone by. All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones. Phones already have big-ass touchscreens and anything else we want... except of course now the audio outputs have been removed. We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, whi…
You could have that if manufacturers hadn't abandoned the double-DIN radio bay.
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
EXACTLY. This "infotainment" BS harks back to vastly overpriced stock car radios of years gone by. All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones. Phones already have big-ass touchscreens and anything else we want... except of course now the audio outputs have been removed. We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, whi…
You could have that if manufacturers hadn't abandoned the double-DIN radio bay.
No doubt! I did this though: https://imgur.com/gallery/krRXQwP
And I even installed extra inputs for a guest to plug into on road trips, and the original CD player.
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
EXACTLY. This "infotainment" BS harks back to vastly overpriced stock car radios of years gone by. All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones. Phones already have big-ass touchscreens and anything else we want... except of course now the audio outputs have been removed. We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, whi…
>We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, which would connect to the audio system and power. But no... we still have phones bouncing around in the cabin or attached to hokey third-party claws, and janky-ass Bluetooth which (how many years in now?) can't handle simple music playback reliably. I've been using Brodit/ProClip USA moun…
Thanks! I can't settle for that, though. This is what I ended up doing in one car. I still haven't tackled my truck, though: https://imgur.com/gallery/krRXQwP
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well sure, we’re consuming more fossil fuels because they’re cheaper. Nothing I’ve seen suggests we can switch primary production to clean sources. It would be more expensive. But that’s far from a hard limit. I’m genuinely curious if someone is credibly speculating we are unable, versus economically unwilling, to replace fossil fuels with clean options.
My understanding is that there are no clean sources able to replace fossil fuels. Or we would need to cover useful land with solar panels (largely produced in China with coal electricity btw). Anyway, we should transition to EV and these cars manufacturers bad practices are just keeping old inefficients cars on the streets.
> we would need to cover useful land with solar panels
About the land area of New Mexico, if we went 100% solar [1]. Remove current hydroelectric, potential geothermal and then mix in wind and nuclear, and you have a realistic mix that could replace fossil fuels.
[1] https://www.axionpower.com/knowledge/power-world-with-solar/
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand how you think this isn't nefarious based on your own post. I didn't ask my car to basically give a backdoor to all my texts and contacts to law enforcement. If that exists, it is certainly being used. I find it very sad that you have to prove injury despite the fact that is is clearly not in a user's benefit. Laws are always playing catchup to tech and we shouldn't have to play wackamole for every…
Why do I think these features are not nefarious? * There's an obvious, legitimate want for the vehicle's head unit to ingest this data, in order to display a UI (or provide a voice UI) which allows the user to call a contact by name or read a recently received text message. Is this a poor implementation concept which has mostly been supplanted by better implementations (Android Auto / CarPlay), sure, absolutely but i…
I have worked for enough IoT and whitelabeled tech companies to know spying is normally never a plan from the start.
It is the lack of planning to prevent it that is years later branded as a feature to sell when company leadership looking to boost numbers or build political capitol start talking to law enforcement. Often after an acquisition or two.
I personally know a release engineer that was required to quietly send all new code changes to an NSA ftp server, presumably to make sure none of the bugs they rely on were fixed.
If something is in popular use and -can- collect data covertly, it will be co-opted to do so by someone for power or money without fail.
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#128Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
My personal solution: I won't own a car that has this sort of capability in the first place, and when I rent a car, I will never allow it and my phone to talk to each other for any reason.
Is that possible anymore? I think all new cars are always online and always collecting data now, and you void your warranty (very different cost/benefit calculus than voiding a phone warranty) if you tamper with the antennas to keep it offline. Very sad state of affairs.
Exactly why I only buy used cars that predate all this insanity.
If we can keep cars from the 40s running, keeping cars from the early 00s running is no big deal. Honestly older fully mechanical/analog cars with manual transmissions are often cheaper and easier to maintain than modern ones with high complexity and DRM on every part.
Sadly my desire for privacy will likely prevent me from ever buying electric unless I build my own car, which I might.
Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
My personal solution: I won't own a car that has this sort of capability in the first place, and when I rent a car, I will never allow it and my phone to talk to each other for any reason.
Is that possible anymore? I think all new cars are always online and always collecting data now, and you void your warranty (very different cost/benefit calculus than voiding a phone warranty) if you tamper with the antennas to keep it offline. Very sad state of affairs.
We were considering a Hyundai Kona after seeing someone online just yank the modem without an issue. The first dealer I worked with said he could have their service department do it, but then couldn't get the model I wanted. The second had the model, but then said even disconnecting the cell modem would void my warranty, so they wouldn't do it without a letter from Hyundai corporate allowing it.
So now I own a brand-new Chevy Bolt. You just yank a single fuse and that takes out OnStar and nothing else.