Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

blog.koenvh.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 525 posts

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

#71

Post by [deleted] »

Xenoamorphous wrote: post #53
bean-weevil wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They own the cameras. You can still take them down and give them back if requested.

The thing is, first of all I’m hardly a handyman, I wouldn’t have known where to start. Second, I was dealing with moving to a new place, which can be very stressful (to add to that, my girlfriend was 6 months pregnant and my dad had passed away unexpectedly less than 2 months earlier). And third, I wanted the alarm, just with me in the contract and with the access to the cameras, not the previous owner. I simply cov…

[deleted]

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

#72

Post by londons_explore »

Most of those GPS trackers for corporate use require a data connection, which is probably costing someone $€£ 10/month for the line at least.

Usually when you stop paying for that subscription, the line gets deactivated.

So probably nobody is getting that GPS trace.

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

#73

Post by [deleted] »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #64
jhugo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless I would have carefully taken these down and put them in a box on the day I moved in. And then called them (or better, written to them) and given them a reasonable amount of time (maybe a couple months) to collect their property, making it clear that I would dispose of it after that time expired.

Why? After cutting the power to them I'd tell the company if they wanted them back I can take them down and ship them back at my standard rate of $500/hr

[deleted]

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

#74

Post by gr33nq »

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.

I think you're right, although I've noticed that there's a timeout where newer cars automatically turns off if the key fob doesn't come back within range after so many minutes. Probably a safety feature to avoid accidental walkaways, whereas the button required a deliberate two-step action (hold down while turning and removing the key) to activate the feature.

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

#75

Post by aaron695 »

nlawalker wrote: post #60
realityking wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s surprisingly common for SIMs in IoT devices to not be locked down. If the data usage spikes enough above the noise it’ll probably be detected & deactivated. Here’s an example from a few years ago: https://scootertalk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1370

Nice. Thought this was going to be https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22085089

[dead]

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

#76

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B »

jhugo wrote: post #51
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW this was not in the US.

Regardless I would have carefully taken these down and put them in a box on the day I moved in. And then called them (or better, written to them) and given them a reasonable amount of time (maybe a couple months) to collect their property, making it clear that I would dispose of it after that time expired.

> given them a reasonable amount of time (maybe a couple months) to collect their property

Why waste your own time with this? If it's your house, you own everything inside. I would put all the cameras in the trash and forget about it.

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

#78

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B »

cyberpunk wrote: post #61
Arainach wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You better believe if I buy a property in Germany which has security cameras inside the absolute first thing that’s happening is those are getting smashed to absolute bits and if anyone even tries to complain I’ll sue them. I may even consider filing against the previous tenants for not removing them and so my being filmed destroying them was without my consent, it’s a clear crime to me to record someone on their pri…

Same thing in France and I don't understand some answers in this thread. My home -> my cameras, and you can be sure they will be removed and thrown away ASAP. It's at least a violation of my privacy and wouldn't be tolerated where I live.

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

#79

Post by rcpt »

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…

> a kill switch

The funny thing is that's what cars do to other people because we don't have enough monitoring.

My e-bike is limited to 20 because "safety". Your car should be to.

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

#80

Post by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B »

taeric wrote: post #41
Arainach wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, one is tied to a private bank account, the other is a privacy-violation device tied to no one.
Post reply on HN