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Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

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Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#91

Post by Espressosaurus »

noman-land wrote: post #56
bitparadox wrote: post #34

I posted a flavor of this comment on an article a few months ago, but it's relevant here: I have a seven year old Volkswagen, not financed. I'm security conscious and made sure to disable all the data collection I could find in the companion app before removing my account, turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could, etc. Last year I requested a Carfax on it, and one of the…

Try finding the fuse and pulling it. It will be in the manual.

Typically it’s tied to other components and pulling the fuse will take out other things like infotainment, speakers, etc.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#92

Post by jerlam »

bitparadox wrote: post #34

I posted a flavor of this comment on an article a few months ago, but it's relevant here: I have a seven year old Volkswagen, not financed. I'm security conscious and made sure to disable all the data collection I could find in the companion app before removing my account, turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could, etc. Last year I requested a Carfax on it, and one of the…

Carfax also can report estimated mileage, but it might have a different flag in the system that allows override.

I've been handed a Carfax on my own car that has a reported mileage much greater than the actual mileage on the car, and the car has not been out of my possession.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#93

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

kaladin-jasnah wrote: post #37

In my GM car I have the wonderful opportunity to pull the OnStar fuse and disable all cellular connectivity. However, I am concerned the telematics information are stored in long term storage and if I have to reconnect the fuse, all my driving will be batch uploaded. I hope not!! And the GPS still works. Maybe I can find some dummy loads as well or the antennae. It's still better than other modern cars though? I thin…

If you are willing to lose GPS, maybe you could set the car's internal clock to the year 2000. This might fool a cursory data dump that is looking for "last three months of driving habits". Would obviously not stand up to any real scrutiny, but mostly painless.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#94

Post by mixmastamyk »

10000truths wrote: post #72
vikingerik wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All it would need is a wi-fi antenna internally, and then it could connect to an open wi-fi network anywhere. And it's going to be pretty much impossible to avoid ever driving your car within range of some open network.

It would have to find an open Wi-Fi network that isn't gated behind a captive portal, which is very rare. Rare enough that most telemetry would be too stale to be useful.

Cable ISPs such as Spectrum sell capacity on their customers routers for such situations, including ‘smart’ appliances.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#95

Post by demibabs »

bitparadox wrote: post #34

I posted a flavor of this comment on an article a few months ago, but it's relevant here: I have a seven year old Volkswagen, not financed. I'm security conscious and made sure to disable all the data collection I could find in the companion app before removing my account, turn off remote access services, dig through the infotainment to turn off what I could, etc. Last year I requested a Carfax on it, and one of the…

Yet if you overestimated the mileage you would’ve been none the wiser!

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#96

Post by samsullivan »

Two different things are getting called "car data" here.

Facts about the car: VIN, spec, recall status, odometer. Attested by someone other than the owner. Outlives every owner and the owner is the last to have it, if at all.

Facts about the driver: speed, location, timestamp. Thats what GM sold, the fix is to not collect it but OEMs seem to take 'anonymization' approach.

The DRIVER act treats both as the same which is why it fails to fix anything. The second needs a ban. The first needs the opposite - especially as we take the driver out of the vehicle - an authoritative record of the vehicle. How do we expect AVs to have adoption when the only safety certification is the company's press release?

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#97

Post by wkjagt »

glitchcrab wrote: post #69
wkjagt wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife's Ioniq 5 was hit on the bumper while it was parked. Took weeks for all parts to get to the dealer and cost thousands of dollars because sensors etc. if someone hit my 1981 Volvo 240 the same way I'm not even sure it would cause any noticable damage.

The 240 is built like a brick (both in terms of strength and looks). My dad had one when I was much younger, then he sold it for a 740. A few months after the sales, police knocked on his door and asked him a lot of questions. It turned out the purchaser had used the car in a ram-raid on a shop.

Oh yeah I believe it. This thing is super strong.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#99

Post by heaney-555 »

otterley wrote: post #77
heaney-555 wrote: post #44

I notice that not one comment here, nor the article, notes that this doesn't happen with a Tesla.

Why doesn’t it happen with them?

Tesla charges a $10/month subscription for its connected features, with relatively high uptake because its software is actually great (unlike the dogshit UX of most cars), so it doesn't need to sell data. Plus it just isn't how Tesla operates.

Re: Data collected by cars and sold to third parties

#100

Post by rozal »

chneu wrote: post #67
willis936 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had good luck with pulling service manuals, finding the telematics antenna connectors, and unplugging them. It's popular to pull the telematics module fuse, but that typically disables internal microphones and GPS that are used by android auto and carplay. This severely degrades features spouses expect to just work. The antenna pulling is a much lighter touch.

The amount of times I see "I'd like to do the right thing but my spouse isn't on board" is mind boggling. It's wild how convenience trumps everything and then we look back to say, "we should have done better."

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