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Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

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Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#71

Post by Hamuko »

jmole wrote: post #68
mkhpalm wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The car dealerships put these things on cars in the event that you finance through them. They are able to make you pay for the device they use to track down vehicles they want to repo. Since they splice into the harness and it takes time to get back in there its actually more problematic to remove than to just leave it. You're paying for it, one way or another.

Not spliced, they used a splitter with an OBD port on either side. I did finance through my own bank though, which might explain the "removal fee".

If these things connect to the OBD port, aren't they basically trivial to find and uninstall yourself?

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#72

Post by londons_explore »

Hamuko wrote: post #71
jmole wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not spliced, they used a splitter with an OBD port on either side. I did finance through my own bank though, which might explain the "removal fee".

If these things connect to the OBD port, aren't they basically trivial to find and uninstall yourself?

They're normally wired in somewhere behind the glovebox or steering column, and can be pretty hard to find.

I had one on a car I bought, and it kept draining the car battery whenever I left it more than a few days. I wasted many hours buying new batteries, testing alternators, and tracking down leakage currents before finding it consuming nearly a watt continuously.

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#73

Post by tallanvor »

quartz wrote: post #37
mig39 wrote: post #8

I love that the skills I learned in the 80s are still relevant today. Interacting with serial ports. AT commands. This stuff hasn't changed much.

Seeing AT commandes described as the "way that humans and machines can interact with a cellular modem" made me feel old because they didn't just say "remember AT commands from manually driving your Hayes 9600baud dial up modem?"

9600? Try 1200 baud! Of course, this guarantees that someone will chime in talking about starting off with a 300 baud modem that worked like they showed in WarGames.

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#74

Post by Hamuko »

londons_explore wrote: post #72
Hamuko wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If these things connect to the OBD port, aren't they basically trivial to find and uninstall yourself?

They're normally wired in somewhere behind the glovebox or steering column, and can be pretty hard to find. I had one on a car I bought, and it kept draining the car battery whenever I left it more than a few days. I wasted many hours buying new batteries, testing alternators, and tracking down leakage currents before finding it consuming nearly a watt continuously.

Do they split the OBD signal behind the glovebox or the steering column? If so, then I imagine they're much harder to find. But if they do it on the actual OBD2 port, then I imagine they would be rather easy to spot?

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#75

Post by jon_adler »

tallanvor wrote: post #73
quartz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing AT commandes described as the "way that humans and machines can interact with a cellular modem" made me feel old because they didn't just say "remember AT commands from manually driving your Hayes 9600baud dial up modem?"

9600? Try 1200 baud! Of course, this guarantees that someone will chime in talking about starting off with a 300 baud modem that worked like they showed in WarGames.

I also ran through most of the modem speeds. All the lower speeds were calls made to BBSs, pre internet. 1200, 2400, 9600, 14400, 28800, 33600…

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#76

Post by kogepathic »

This article title is FUD and the EFF is doing themselves a disservice in publishing this.

The GPS tracking device had absolutely no connection to the individual being an EFF supporter, and was in fact entirely benign (if unknown to the vehicle owner).

What we need from the EFF: a serious discussion about anti-theft vehicle tracking and privacy (e.g. a list of brands/dealerships installing these devices, how/where to find them, how to disable them, which anti-theft GPS brands don't sell your location data)

What we got: someone at the EFF learns about UART, called a car dealership, and wrote a clickbait title

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#77

Post by mkurz »

> Looking at their website it seemed to have not been updated in years. It even contained a widget for Adobe Flash, a very old way of creating animation on websites.

Funny they explain what Flash is. It's just two years since it's officially dead, however Flash used to be around everywhere until at least ~2015. For me it feels strange there are younger people not knowing what Flash is... I am getting old ;)

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#78

Post by hoseja »

dmitrygr wrote: post #6
revicon wrote: post #2

Wow, didn’t know EFF went so deep on investigations like this. Top notch!

This is not really deep, TBH. This is 5-6 minutes of work for someone who does this habitually. They didn't even dump the firmware of the PIC running in there to share it for some fun RE.

Yes, the writeup sounded very amateurish.

Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car

#80

Post by danuker »

kogepathic wrote: post #76

This article title is FUD and the EFF is doing themselves a disservice in publishing this. The GPS tracking device had absolutely no connection to the individual being an EFF supporter, and was in fact entirely benign (if unknown to the vehicle owner). What we need from the EFF: a serious discussion about anti-theft vehicle tracking and privacy (e.g. a list of brands/dealerships installing these devices, how/where to…

What we got: awareness about vehicle trackers and some tips on how to handle them.

I believe awareness of technology is crucial for civil society. Sure it's got a clickbaity title, but it worked in getting HN on it.

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