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It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

theregister.com

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Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#21

Post by Caboose8685 »

drewcoo wrote: post #19
bri3d wrote: post #15

I dug into the technical details here over the last few days and as usual it's not quite as sinister as the hand wringing: * Automotive head units are just embedded computers. Most run Linux, QNX, or Windows CE, with some proprietary UI system on top. * These machines usually store data in an onboard database in flash (sometimes just SQLite). * Sometimes, phone data is captured using standard Bluetooth mechanisms (Me…

> * If you use a rental car, Factory Reset the head unit when you leave. That is ridiculously onerous! Just because geeks can share arcane knowledge about how to be safe does not mean that this isn't horribly anti-consumer.

I wholly agree with your sentiment, but as someone who cares to actually take action for my privacy this kind of onerousness is par for the course, unfortunately.

Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#22

Post by drewcoo »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8
SenAnder wrote: post #2

> In other words, it's A-OK for your car to "automatically and without authorization , instantaneously intercept, record, download, store, and [be] capable of transmitting" text messages and call logs since the privacy violation is potential, but the injury not necessarily actual. So it's effectively legal to sell backdoored hardware and software to spy on people. I wonder what would happen if I sold backdoored phone…

This is a decision made regarding Washington state law’s “statutory injury requirement” [1]. It says “a plaintiff must allege an injury to ‘his or her business, his or her person, or his or her reputation,’” with “a bare violation” of the privacy law being “insufficient to satisfy the statutory injury requirement.” It is particular to Washington state, not all Americans. And it may not apply to a prosecutor versus pr…

So post facto punishment and not consumer protection.

WA has a referendum system, though, so if people in WA care about this, you can get something on a ballot and vote it into law.

Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#23

Post by graphe »

My Toyota asks for permission and if I grant it then it'll "harvest" my texts and calls. How horrible and unexpected.

The title and the conclusion are biased and of poor quality. It should be "car manufacturers didn't get fined for the way their old head units worked".

Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#25

Post by QwertyPi »

arjvik wrote: post #7
lotsofpulp wrote: post #5

This is why I would not consider connecting my phone to anything other than CarPlay/Android Auto.

Both of which require Bluetooth pairing (or at least auto-pair without asking you if I recall correctly) which allows the head unit to siphon data!

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Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#26

Post by QwertyPi »

arjvik wrote: post #11
galleywest200 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple CarPlay works over my USB-C cable, at least in my 2018 Subaru Crosstrek on an iPhone 15. No Bluetooth required I am fairly certain. I also have to unlock the device every so often with my Face ID -- unsure what triggers this as it is not 100% of the time.

My car also uses wired Android Auto, but somehow after I set it up the day I drove it home, my phone automatically connected to it via Bluetooth. I recall something similar when a friend plugged in their iPhone but I’m not sure.

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Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#27

Post by QwertyPi »

SenAnder wrote: post #2

> In other words, it's A-OK for your car to "automatically and without authorization , instantaneously intercept, record, download, store, and [be] capable of transmitting" text messages and call logs since the privacy violation is potential, but the injury not necessarily actual. So it's effectively legal to sell backdoored hardware and software to spy on people. I wonder what would happen if I sold backdoored phone…

[dead]

Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#28

Post by QwertyPi »

nonameiguess wrote: post #12
SenAnder wrote: post #2

> In other words, it's A-OK for your car to "automatically and without authorization , instantaneously intercept, record, download, store, and [be] capable of transmitting" text messages and call logs since the privacy violation is potential, but the injury not necessarily actual. So it's effectively legal to sell backdoored hardware and software to spy on people. I wonder what would happen if I sold backdoored phone…

I'm not an attorney, but I think a lot of the Internet misunderstands the law. It is legal to do this, apparently, but that doesn't mean the court is saying it's okay or they should do this, and it certainly doesn't mean anyone would be okay with you doing it. But if you managed to, then yes, it would apparently be legal. The court can only rule on what the law actually says and it says you only have grounds to sue o…

[dead]

Re: It's perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs

#30

Post by Caboose8685 »

client4 wrote: post #29

I've been trying to figure out how to disable my trucks cellular antenna without disabling any other systems. It's proven more difficult than I thought.

Could potentially Faraday cage it if you can find the exact spot it's at.
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