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

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

#81

Post by snowwrestler »

josephcsible wrote: post #68
Etheryte wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric cars are essentially black boxes. When you take it apart, you have largely no idea what any of the chips do, even if you chase down what they're connected to. Is this the infotainment system or is it the infotainment system and a data gathering system that sends all my data off seas? There's no way to know. Old cars don't have that problem. Here's an engine, here's a gearbox, add a radio if you'd like, but b…

But that's not a gas vs. electric distinction, but rather an old vs. new one. Modern ICE cars have all of those problems too.

Yes but the point is, this technology is a blocker for people who might otherwise be interested in an electric powertrain vehicle.

If you want an old car without all this crap, you can get one. But it pretty much has to be an ICE.

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

#83

Post by IshKebab »

sellmesoap wrote: post #54
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Let's find a list of electric cars without some form of network connection!

Found it:

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

#84

Post by thaumasiotes »

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…

> I called the security company to transfer ownership but that couldn’t be done without authorisation from the previous owner, which probably makes sense.

No, that's how ownership of internet accounts works. Ownership of real estate is based on completely different principles; there is no earthly reason you'd need the previous owner to be involved. Who owns what real estate is a matter of public record.

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

#85

Post by imiric »

kleiba wrote: post #67

As long as privacy-related misconducts are considered petty offenses, these things will just continue. Governments fail to see the implications because the virtual world is too difficult for them to understand. As long as there are no laws that actually get enforced, your privacy isn't worth anything.

The problem isn't with governments. It's with people.

Most people don't care about their privacy. Even if they do, the majority of that group don't care enough to give up the conveniences they get in exchange for it. This leaves a small group of people to fight for protecting their privacy, as well as of those who don't care about it. This is an uphill battle against trillion-dollar corporations and the governments they're in symbiosis with.

Some governments do make an effort, but it's too little, and too ineffective to matter in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn't expect this to improve, and can easily see it getting worse. I hope I'm just being pessimistic.

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

#86

Post by milesvp »

londons_explore wrote: post #72

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.

I work in this space, and I’ve seen advertised components (most likely SOCs) that had “lifetime” cell data included in the price, costing, on the order of, $50. It is becoming increasingly cheap to have low bandwidth cellular connectivity.

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

#87

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #35
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…

I'm with you here. I have an 89 BMW (which is old enough to have an actual servo motor attached to the intake manifold for cruise control) and an 83 Land Cruiser (whose most advanced feature is that it controls its emissions using vacuum controlled pneumatic circuitry). I'm very glad I've put in the time to learn how to work on cars because I have zero interest in the tech direction of modern vehicles.

> 89 BMW ... and an 83 Land Cruiser

I'm with you. Our daily drivers are 2011 Mitsu, 96 Toyota, 92 Buick and a 63 Dart. Also a 61 Sunliner for when it's not-summer.

The Mitsu is unfortunately drive-by-wire; I mostly avoid it.

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

#88

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

staticautomatic wrote: post #43
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.

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.

I do not see any way in which this property could still be considered the previous owners. Let's say the camera was in the bathroom pointed directly at the shower. You just have to suck it up forever, knowing that someone could be watching? In fact, I could imagine it being a criminal charge for trying to capture people in the nude. What if someone has a child who bathes there? Now they were trying to create CP.

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

#89

Post by salawat »

rcpt wrote: post #79
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.

Your e-bike shouldn't be limited. You should get on that.

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

#90

Post by pnw »

orliesaurus wrote: post #77

Anyone that has a Tesla knows what data they track? Or is it dependant on the features you have active ...

There is a list at https://www.tesla.com/support/privacy and you can request a copy. They state never sell or rent your data to third-parties, and sentry and dashcam data is only stored locally. They anonymize the data they do use, presumably for AI training.
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