In May, US-based automotive firm Privacy4Cars released a new tool, dubbed the Vehicle Privacy Report, that reveals how much information on your car can be hoovered up. Much like Apple and Google’s privacy labels for apps—which show how Facebook might use your camera, or how Uber might use your location data—the tool indicates what vehicle manufacturers can know.
Using industry sales data, WIRED ran 10 of the most popular cars in the US through the privacy tool to see just how much information they can collect. Spoiler: It’s a lot. The analysis follows previous reporting on the amount of data modern cars can collect and share—with estimates saying cars can produce 25 gigabytes of data per hour.
-Stormfax
This isn't new. It's been going on for years. All sorts of devices are spying on you- your TV, cell phone, and car, to name just a few. They report back to their manufacturer, who then frequently turns it over to the government.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure the car deal is getting more and more intrusive, though.
DeleteAll that makes me glad I don't own a TV, I don't carry a cell phone, and my main ride is a 2001 F-150 that doesn't even have Bluetooth. I may not be completely safe from being tracked but I'm heads and shoulders above 99% of the population who can't walk out of their own living room to the kitchen without taking their phone.
Number 2 has not been the same since..a whole genre of books, poof!
DeleteYou got it right. My old car was a 2002 Maxima. Considering age etc, I bought a new Nissan pathfinder. Same V6 engine, real auto trans, and so on. Great choice I thought. But didn’t
Deleteexpect the electronics! And the “driver aides”. If I cross lanes without my the blinker, the steering wheel vibrates. The speed limit sign is shown and if I go 5 mph over, a warning beep goes off. If I stop too long, the engine shuts off, but restarts when I hit the gas. Not the push to start button, but the gas pedal. The car warns if I get too close, even in bumper to bumper traffic. Yellow lights go off and on the side view mirrors to warn about a car. Why do I need that warning?
It goes on and on. Stop the car and it warns me to check the backseat. WTF for? When I first start the car, it warns me that my driving data is uploaded. Where? Who? Why? The radio has a web browser. It warns me if it doesn’t connect to my iPhone. What?
Think twice before you buy a new car. They are fucking annoying, period. And you’ll pay full sticker price.
Holy shit, that would drive me insane.
DeleteMy old 2003 Ford Ranger, with optional Millennial anti-theft device, is looking better all the time.
DeleteCoincidentally, ever since I read that manual transmissions are getting nearly non-existent, I tried to find a small new pickup with a regular cab, long bed and manual transmission. Apparently they don't exist anymore. Which is okay, as I wouldn't buy one anyway because of the cost and the BS that goes along with them as described in this post and comment thread.
Still, it's sad that a guy just doesn't have the options he did even 20 years ago.
I got to drive a new car as a rental from the airport visiting my brother. It has all the annoyances you mention, but in addition the steering wheel would vibrate and the car move a bit in the lane. I initially thought there was something wrong with the steering, or maybe the wheel bearings. It took me bit to realize that the car was "subtlety" driving to put itself back where it thought it should be in the lane and vibrating the steering wheel to let me know it didn't approve of where I had steered it.
DeleteWhich failed when the dimensions of the lane changed because of exits/entrances, or construction. The end result was that you could not rest your arm on the window ledge and just drive down the highway because you were constantly fighting the AI that was steering the car and vibrating the steering wheel.
On the other hand, you could take your hands off the steering wheel and let the car drive itself. It impressed me by steering around a highway curve. This would last for 30 seconds (?) until the car realized you weren't steering it, a warning message would come up saying "Put your hands on the wheel", and the car would start decelerating, until you resumed the fight.
In addition, when you were coming up behind another vehicle (tractor trailers), the car would "smoothly" decelerate until you were going just as fast as the truck ahead of you, "at a safe distance". You'd only realize what happened when you had the thought, "Hey, I'm not going as fast as I set the cruise control for." and then you'd have to use the gas pedal to accelerate to get back up to your highway speed to go around the truck.
There were other annoyances, but you already covered them, and it makes me grateful for my 2001 Chevy back home.
Steve
All of those "features" which are "safety related" will become inspectable, and have to function in order for your car to pass state inspection, which will soon include an electronic diagnostic computer fow loading your data
DeleteHmmm, I am pretty sure my 1994 F250 does not present a privacy concern. Heck, it isn't even OBDII.
ReplyDeleteI just have to leave my phone at home.
Of course it is ugly enough it would be easy to track by offended witness statements, and the leaky rear main seal oily drip and the rust flakes trail down the street if someone wants to find me.
Many auto insurance companies offer a discount if you use their little OBDII plugin to monitor your driving. The problem is, the first time you brake too hard, accelerate too hard (both definitions are fluid and chosen by them) your rates spike. Once the car does that for them, you'll have no way to opt out. I wouldn't worry, though, I'm sure they'll never use the information to increase your rates unfairly.
ReplyDeleteThe government mandated that all vehicles sold in the US have to be equipped with GPS that cannot be turned off, disabled, or removed starting in model year 2005. The surveillance has only gotten more sophisticated with time.
ReplyDeleteDisconnect the satellite radio antenna,data still collected but with vehicle until uploaded
ReplyDeleteWhat's the easiest way to do that, drop the header to get to it?
DeleteEasiest way is to unbolt the big red wire on the heavy black cube, it's usually in the corner of the plastic-covered hose-n-wire storage area up front, under the sex-seat behind the driver, or in the dead body storage compartment.
DeleteIf you don't have the right size wrench or socket, use a hacksaw.
Or kill the power to the appropriate unit. This might take some digging, but I'd start with the OnStar. (2003 Subburban
DeleteIf this had been going on when I was a kid there would have been boys in shop class figuring out ways to get around anything they didn't want on their vehicle. Do they even have shop class now?
ReplyDeleteMy grandson has all these “cheat codes” for the games. Where are cheat codes for my car? I don’t want gps or speed limit warnings or any of that. Is there a wire I can burn?
DeleteTape some Faraday material over the shark fin, then there is no need to fuck around with chip removal. Stick an googly eye over the camera in the rearview mirror.
ReplyDeleteChutes Magoo
Holy shit. There’s a camera in the rear view mirror?
DeleteThat was my first thought too.
DeleteOn my 2009 car the "eye" in the mirror is a photocell for the auto-dimming feature, not a camera. You can test it by holding a flashlight tight to the mirror covering the eye and seeing if the mirror darkens when you turn the flashlight on. If you think it's a camera well you have electrical tape, right?
DeleteI plan to drive my '09 Mercedes until I die even if I have to buy a parts donor car.
Al_in_Ottawa
I should check and make sure my 64 Ford Falcon is not spying on me :)
ReplyDeleteI am very grateful for my 23 year old dodge. I plan to drive it until I die.
ReplyDeleteI was watching a Dateline episode recently where a murder got solved because authorities were able to extract down to the second the exact whereabouts of this guy's F-150 over the course of a few days, and what doors he had opened and when.
ReplyDeleteSo the moral is, if you're gonna move a body, use an older vehicle.
New trucks are the same. Fucking annoying crap going off all the time. Another 38k miles, this 2020 Pete will be getting traded in. Reckon it'll be about retirement time. .gov is wanting to mandate all these nice features in newer trucks, this company has so many God awful drivers, they requested all the sensors. I can't handle LISTENING to the shit in other drivers trucks when I'm on the phone with one of them. Really ups the ptsd pressure.
ReplyDelete