Can anyone tell me how these vehicles are getting my data out of the car and into the hands of Toyota, or whoever, if I don’t use their app and never connect the vehicle to any networks?
I imagine the dealerships could probably pull my info out of the car when I take it in for a checkup, but outside of that I can’t think of how my data is getting offloaded.
Purely theoretical as I don’t have any sources on how cars are doing this, but they could be communicating over low band networks similar to how Amazon home devices make a mesh network. Your car could send data to another car of the same manufacturer, who then phones home that data.
The cars themselves have connectivity that can be transmitted over cellular networks (same as/similar to whatever OnStar uses). Plus if you ever connect your phone via Bluetooth to listen to music or plug it directly into the car with a cable that can transfer data, standard protocol on a lot of cars is to just download everything off the phone that it can access.
Not gonna go anywhere. At least not in a lot of modern countries. Vehicle safety authorities dont fuck around. And unless you have the bankroll mercedes and volkswagen have you are gonna get sued into oblivion for violating a bunch of stuff. Or just sued until they bleed you dry
I live in California, so long as it passes smog and the check engine light aint on they dont give a fuck. Mostly cause the car modding scene here is somewhat demented.
Key word is access. Not everything on your phone is available to the vehicle, but if, for instance, you allow your car to access your contacts, it downloads all of them with all the metadata which the company can then sell. Or internally run through algorithms to profile you and everyone who uses your vehicle. If you use Android Auto or CarPlay, or just connect to the entertainment systems, they’ll skim whatever metadata they can and phone it home. Even worse if you use a car’s official app, it will use your own phone as the transmission point.
No, it doesn’t immediately transmit an entire backup of your phone over a personal Bluetooth connection, but I was very precise in how I worded my sentence.
OnStar has been a thing since '96. They’ve been putting antennas on cars to locate or other wise track them for a long time. One of the things that bothers me about this article is that they don’t say what year models or anything. While I’m sure that for the most part not all the automakers started this practice the exact same year, I am sure there was a starting point. Before then they couldn’t track you. After they could. That’s kind of disappointing. There are some people who think there early 2000’s cars are safe. I am not so sure.
They also don’t mention the fact that if they are using 3G or 2G or Edge components chances are they can’t still be collecting data on users driving those vehicles. But anything with a newer onboard modem would be effected I should think.
If presented with a binary choice between minimizing carbon footprint with privacy-evasive EV or sticking with more polluting ICE vehicle and keeping privacy, what would you choose? Which choice is more ethically sound? What is more important between mitigating human-caused climate change or preserving individual human privacy? 🤔
I chose buying and maintaining older vehicle because at this point I’m convinced a big part of the issue is not what type of vehicle people drive but the fact that so many people can’t keep one longer than 4 years.
Friend of mine has bought 5 EV since 2015, that’s not less pollution.
Good point. Well-maintained ‘02 Honda CR-V here with 186k miles. I bike to work when weather and climate conditions allow which is most days May–November where I live. We got a second hand Tesla last year because my wife commutes a lot for work. With the latest news, I may try and hold onto the CR-V for even longer than next 2–3 years.
If presented with a binary choice between minimizing carbon footprint with privacy-evasive EV or sticking with more polluting ICE vehicle and keeping privacy, what would you choose?
Neither. I don’t even have a drivers license and I’m 34 years old. I walk, bike, or take a bus everywhere.
Are we assuming that throwing out an existing petrol car and buying a new EV is a net positive for the environment? How long is it going to take for the pollution created by the material gathering, manufacture, and transport of the new EV to be offset by what you saved in fuel consumption?
How long is it going to take for the pollution created by the material gathering, manufacture, and transport of the new EV to be offset by what you saved in fuel consumption?
The impact of our cars, though significant, is far outstripped by global shipping (those container ships aren’t carbon-neutral), power generation (EV cars gotta get their power from somewhere), or the simple burning of rain forests to make room for cattle or crops.
It takes energy to smelt steel and aluminum and build a car, or to mine Rare Earth Minerals needed for the latest tech.
Driving and old car that you maintain, repair, and keep out of the junkyard is far more environmentally sound. So far. Hoping that balance will change in near decades.
We don’t know how far back this problem will affect the automakers in question, but I can tell you that OnStar services launched in 1996. So don’t be surprised if your car does in fact have an internet connection. Unless I guess you don’t own a car. In that case, congrats.
My car is nowhere near that smart, and I don’t pay any subscription fees so I doubt I’m rolling around Australia with a data connection that I don’t know about.
You very well might be. Your car might be “dumb” to the user, but still have a culular modem that transmits information to the manufacturer.
The manufacturer has already paid the subscription upfront, and can get very very low deals from the culular networks due to the low amount of data transmitted.
Unless your car is older than 2010, there’s almost a 100% chance your car has a data connection and is collecting data. I’m not sure what you think you’re the exception to the rule.
2012 Toyota. Toyota T-Connect didn’t become available until 2014.
It’s also a paid service! It requires a sim card and a plan, and would have relied on the factory entertainment unit which I have removed.
I think you are mistaking ‘black box’ type data logging with an always-on internet connection phoning home with the ability to turn features on and off which is a more recent and far more sinister phenomenon.
No, just need courts to do their fucking job correctly. Making new laws to fix problems only works when they are enforced properly. If courts and governments did what they are supposed to do then we wouldnt be where we are. But here we are
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