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
#2I wonder what should be the GDPR implications for the car dealership, selling cars that track their owner's location and not being able to confirm it, explain why it exists, or who receives the data.
Unless the whole thing is disabled in absence of a registered fleet tracker key on the magnet on the right.
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#3While you do own the hardware, you probably don’t own the data, licenses, and software in the SIM so you might not be entitled to the data it transmits once it hits the carriers network.
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#4That was a fun read. It's interesting to think that they would leave it attached. Indeed, what could you do with that?
Did you find the unit that the wires go to? Then you could open that up and see what chips, sensors etc are in there.
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#5Aftermarket GPS tracker, for those who just want the answer quickly
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#6While you do own the hardware, you probably don’t own the data, licenses, and software in the SIM so you might not be entitled to the data it transmits once it hits the carriers network.
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.)
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#7The metal thing looks like an ibutton / 1-wire reader, which matches the functional description given:
https://www.atrack.com.tw/en/product/1-wire-ibutton-tag-read...
If you have a flipper zero, maybe you could poke at it.
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#8I wonder what should be the GDPR implications for the car dealership, selling cars that track their owner's location and not being able to confirm it, explain why it exists, or who receives the data. Unless the whole thing is disabled in absence of a registered fleet tracker key on the magnet on the right.
While I'm sure they discontinued the service on whatever cellular device transmits the data back it is a curious question about the legality of if they left the service in place and continue to track the vehicle long after they sold it
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#9I wonder if it’s a tracking off switch or a panic button? I used to work for a fleet tracking SaaS, and some customers with unionised workforces needed a way to disable tracking, and panic buttons were common too (although less so in Europe).
Re: What does this button do? – My new car has a mysterious and undocumented switch
#10> “can I get free data from the SIM card embedded in the device that I now technically own?”
That seems like the next-most-interesting question now that you've determined what the device is. Possibly followed closely by "can I use that free-to-me data in a fun way that might teach the people who installed the SIM to deactivate their devices when they sell them?"
i.e. Could you send and receive enough on the connection using that SIM to cost them enough money that they'd notice it?