cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1432229/your-car-is-a-smartphone-on-wheels-a-team-of-researchers-tested-21-vehicles-and-found-th
Data sent by vehicles and companion apps included locations, VINs, and other identifiers. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft were among the top receivers of driver data.
I’m driving my crv until the wheels fall off and then I’m gluing them back on
my '08 (that a bought a '12 to replace) is a rusty pos that needs a lot of high-mileage maintenance and regular maintenance (rusty af everything, gas tank is gonna start leaking soon, pretty much the entire suspension is shot, power steering starting to leak, some sort of engine issues that I’m not sure what exactly is causing it, rusty exhaust headers causing some of the engine issues), but since I can’t get any money for it, I’m not sure when exactly I’m going to get rid of it. might as well keep it around until I know for sure I don’t want to fix it
Just get yourself a '97 4Runner, there are no trackers in a '97 4Runner.
Researchers connected each vehicle to a custom WiFi access point and logged all outgoing traffic.
The article talks about both apps and the vehicles themselves. I would really like to see more info on what the cars do when you take the apps out of the equation. Are there any that don’t phone home unless you explicitly give them internet access?
A study about the results will be published this week.
I look forward to reading this.
I’m still not sure if those require giving the car a WiFi/cellular connection or if it’ll just use it’s own… I’ve heard that cars use their own SIMs to phone home, but I don’t actually know how prevalent that is
I know for a fact Ford ships a modem with a SIM and they use it sparingly because it’s expensive. Don’t know abt the rest.
That graphic is less than useless without any source to back it up though…for all we know this could be AI garbage you just generated.
It’s in the article that they were responding to. So you are just wildely throwing out negativity without any comprehension.
That edit with the link came after my comment it seems
It’s also in the article OP posted…
Stop hitting them, they already dead.
No it’s not, that’s a different graph although it has similar data.
Do remind me
2006 car with manual transmission. There’s exactly enough computer in it to run the ignition and oil change timer.
Would rather drive a rust bucket. I do drive a rust bucket. I’m not affraid of scratching it. I don’t feel I have to always keep it pristine clean. I’m not affraid of working on it myself. I’m not being
chargedrobbed subscriptions for equipment already installed. I’m not wondering wether I’m being tracked by sick fucking creeps.And if I were to use a screwdriver to pop a component off of the motherboard, which website would tell me the component to target for my make/model?
Disconnect the antennas. Its easier and reversible
Interesting to see Subaru at the very bottom - barely anything, but Toyota is the opposite, sucking up big data like they’re General Motors
Edit: can confirm my car isn’t doing anything - when I upgraded my head unit, I discovered unconnected wires where a telemetry module would be
Doubly interesting because the Subaru Solterra is a Toyota. But I guess Subaru has their own infotainment in it? I haven’t really test driven one.
I hope the study specifically publishes the data on the Model 3. I bought one before I became much more privacy conscious, but I’ve done my best to mitigate the leakage from that. In doing so, I read through all of Tesla’s terms and conditions upon opt out and sending any of my information or information that can be used to identify or profile me, should never be sold to advertisers. I write software licenses for a living so I’m pretty confident in my reading on this. It would be interesting to see what can currently be mitigated by changing some settings and what cannot.
Would REALLY love to de-surveillance my vehicle if anybody has any tips (please quietly make the “buy an old car instead” jokes to yourself)
(please quietly make the “buy an old car instead” jokes to yourself)
That’s not a joke, it’s sincere advice. My newest car is a 2008 (I think) model. I’d love to have an EV, but I don’t because I haven’t figured out how to have one that isn’t infected by “telemetry” and other enshittification. I have hopes for the Slate Truck, but it doesn’t actually exist yet, so I wait.
(Also, yes, as a mod of the place I’d be remiss if I didn’t second the other reply and suggest adopting a non-car-dependent lifestyle to begin with.)
Find and disconnect the telemetry antenna. If the telemetry is in a discrete unit delete that too.
Don’t do anything irreversible in case the manufacturer has booby trapped the car to go in to limp mode without the portable flock setup.
Okay, but how do they fill the giant hole in the middle of the dash now?
(/srs can just cut off all antennas but this will make the computer waste battery trying to connect so the car may not start after a while if it’s combustion engine)
That’s the interface to you not the one to the cell, in case anyone doesn’t know.
Buy an old car
In many cars, the modem that phones home with your data may be a separate unit. Depending on your make and model, you can sometimes buy cable adapters that will connect power to everything except that subsystem. The term to search for is a “DCM bypass plug”.
Many cars have the modem / LTE as a module that can be disabled. On my car, a 2018 Chevy, the LTE antenna plugs into a networking module in the footwell. I bought an antenna cable and dummy load resistor on Amazon for ~$10 and simply unplugged the LTE antenna in the car and plugged in the dummy antenna. That disables all cell network connectivity but doesn’t effect things like Bluetooth. It’s also easily reversible if someone wanted to do that for some reason.
You can probably Google something like “year make model disable LTE” or “disable telemetry” to get an idea of how hard it would be on your car. Some make it very cheap / easy and some make it very difficult.
I have a 2008 car, it doesn’t even chime when I don’t put my seatbelt on.
After driving a 2024 Subaru, I realize that I am a very fortunate person, and I live a life of silence and peaceful reflection.
2010 models at the latest, I am only going to own old vehicles until this beeping madness ends.
How long until new models show advertisements on the dash related to your conversations? Three years, tops.
I have a 2011 Silverado 4wd that I lucked into real cheap right before covid. I ripped the OnStar out of it and I hope it never dies 'cause I won’t ever be able to afford anything like it again.
Inb4 the anti truck bitchfest. I live in the sticks, and use it the way a truck needs to be used.
Similar findings as:
and https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/cars-and-drivers-2024-year-review
Petition: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/campaigns/car-companies/
No it’s not. You don’t know what my car is and is not.
I hate this style of titles. I’m a gearhead and own 5 vehicles and a motorcycle. None of them are a smartphone on wheels, the newest one is newly 20 years old.
I just need to get from point a to point b. I don’t need some goddamn home entertainment system connected to everything else.
I also don’t want it, which is arguably the more important point as the customer
Most want it.
I have a 2001 car and a 2024 Grom motorcycle. Absolutely no telemetry or such. I’m keeping them for as long as possible.
