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What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

blog.koenvh.nl

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Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#41

Post by taeric »

Arainach wrote: post #22
TomK32 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though the SIM was part of the car they bought, the SIM's contract is not in their name which means using the contract would be theft.

Is there case law on this? I don't see any way in which this is legally theft by the OP (admittedly my knowledge is more US-centric than Euro-centric). If I let someone tether a device to my cell phone (or loan my phone to them), are they committing theft? The company on the contract voluntarily gave the SIM to OP.

Imagine it was a credit card found in the car, what are the material differences? Note the suggestion is to willfully use the device in a way.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#42

Post by [deleted] »

Xenoamorphous wrote: post #24
TomK32 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though the SIM was part of the car they bought, the SIM's contract is not in their name which means using the contract would be theft.

This can be difficult to grasp. I bought an aparment 3.5 years ago and it had an alarm installed. I called the security company to transfer ownership but that couldn’t be done without authorisation from the previous owner, which probably makes sense. The problem is, they were unreachable, and I was living on a house that I now owned, and which had cameras the previous owner could take pics from at any time . My patie…

[deleted]

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#43

Post by staticautomatic »

Arainach wrote: post #22
TomK32 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though the SIM was part of the car they bought, the SIM's contract is not in their name which means using the contract would be theft.

Is there case law on this? I don't see any way in which this is legally theft by the OP (admittedly my knowledge is more US-centric than Euro-centric). If I let someone tether a device to my cell phone (or loan my phone to them), are they committing theft? The company on the contract voluntarily gave the SIM to OP.

IAALBNYL it’s not theft because they’ve been abandoned and are in the new owner’s possession. If the prior owner can’t be reached and the security company which claims to own them won’t take them, they’re probably fair game.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#45

Post by [deleted] »

afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

[deleted]

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#46

Post by theodric »

Xenoamorphous wrote: post #24
TomK32 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though the SIM was part of the car they bought, the SIM's contract is not in their name which means using the contract would be theft.

This can be difficult to grasp. I bought an aparment 3.5 years ago and it had an alarm installed. I called the security company to transfer ownership but that couldn’t be done without authorisation from the previous owner, which probably makes sense. The problem is, they were unreachable, and I was living on a house that I now owned, and which had cameras the previous owner could take pics from at any time . My patie…

So you uninstalled them and FedExed them to the company along with a bill for the deinstallation work, right?

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#47

Post by ilikeatari »

So this was a gps tracker that was installed by a fleet and never removed. The larger issue is that most car companies in the US are reselling your data on newish vehicles (2016+) anyway. I am still amazed that this is not a larger issue.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#48

Post by Rygian »

K0balt wrote: post #21
Rygian wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well,[the data it transmits] it's personal information, so the owner of the car has a very explicit right to it. (Car plates are from an EU country.)

I don’t know how that would work, since that data is the personal information of whoever is in the car at the time of collection, so I would guess that the applicant to get the info would have to substantiate that they were in the car at the time, regardless of the ownership of the car. Or maybe just ownership of the car is enough? I kind of suspect it might not be though.

The car belongs to the individual named Koen Van Hove (as stated in the blog). He holds GDPR rights to any location data that gets sent out.

Before that, if the system allowed for any correlation of location data to who was driving at that point, the exact same rights apply too for each involved driver.

Only if the data controller (the entity who made the choice to put a gps tracker on the car) took specific steps to ensure the location data could not be correlated to an individual (and can prove those steps were taken), is the data safe from GDPR.

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#49

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

afh1 wrote: post #25

The scary part is not the GPS installed by the fleet company that previously owned the car, which in all likelihood was just forgotten there, but the GPS and eSIM that comes with most (all?) new cars and that in most (all?) new cars cannot be disabled. Apart from privacy concerns of your data being used or sold by the car vendor, government outreach is also a concern. There was a bill announced in the US for all new…

What does any of that have to do with a car being electric?

Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch

#50

Post by kccqzy »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #20
gr33nq wrote: post #15

At first glance this reminded me of some Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor models which had similar unlabeled buttons. One would disable all exterior lights, including brake lights, for going into stealth/surveillance mode. An adjacent button was used to be able to remove the key and keep the engine running, while preventing the car from being shifted out of park until the key was inserted again. I haven't seen…

> … used to be able to remove the key and keep the engine running, while preventing the car from being shifted out of park … I’m pretty sure (not 100%) that new cars with contactless keys have this feature by default. You can get out (with the key) and leave it running, but the shifter won’t work until you return with the key.

Mine didn't. My contactless key needs to be nearby when starting the car. The shifter is independent and does not need the key.
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