Mozilla released their studies, and I’m seeing a growing number of posts on the Internet about cars and the privacy nightmare they entail. I remember how this issue wasn’t talked about earlier because “just buy an older car” was still prevalent. I’m so happy that people are taking notice. Thank you to this community and Mozilla for the work they are putting in!
I’m basically in the position that I’m driving a car from 1999, and when it finally dies, I’ll either be resigned to riding the bus or finding another aged used car without all this absolute bullshit in it.
Maybe it really is time for the Free Open Source Vehicle.
Get ready for the Pine Car
I mean… I’d buy one. Already got a Pinecil.
That’s kinda extreme lol but I hope that companies start selling non smart cars. I don’t want my car to be smart , I want my car to take me to point A and B , and be able to fix it myself.
You don’t need a very old car, just one that is old enough the cellular network doesn’t work any more.
Some vehicles were made for 3g, and can’t go to 4g for example.
2g antenna sare still up and running. Every new generation is add on top of the previous like a new layer of the network. And telemetry can be collected through older gen network.
Maybe it really is time for the Free Open Source Vehicle.
Sure, but what it is for certain time for is making this sort of spying and tracking illegal. If I as a private citizen tracked someone this much, it would be considered stalking, which is a criminal offense.
Getting a base model can somewhat help too. My 2020 car only has carplay. No built in navigation or any remote or homing tech (that I know of). It’s the higher trims that get all the fancy tech “features”.
Oh my god, no. No, no, no.
Just because they aren’t making those features available to you doesn’t mean they aren’t still tracking all that stuff.
I mean sort of. What is “base” has also changed.
Try finding an EV that doesn’t have automatic windows but has old school manual rollup/rolldown windows. You can’t, even though its more environmentally friendly.
With a button you just press it to close the windows for a short stint of faster driving where having the windows down is uncomfortable. With a flange you’d probably be more inclined to leave them open because of the effort required to close them while driving. I think having your windows open even for a few short drives leads to more energy usage by increased drag than the window servo uses in the whole cars’ lifetime. So I don’t think it is any more environmentally friendly.
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My city doesn’t even have bus fare. It’s not like they’re grabbing my biometrics when I step in. They’re not trying to identify me when I walk on.
You just walk on, wait, then walk off.
It may not be the most private way of transport but it’s not actively collecting data on you, which is what this is about.
EDIT: Further, it’s just easier for a car to collect data on it’s owner. When you buy a car, you get a Title which registers the Vehicle Identification Number to the owners name. Then, when you’re driving, because you’re in public you’re required to have your Drivers License, Registration, Insurance, a License Plate and up-to-date Tabs all very specific identifiers that identify both the driver and the car. The cars sensors only have to identify the owner, to whom it is already registered, and so they know the data they’re collecting is from one person/one family.
I’ve seen my cities bus budget. They have cameras on the bus for the protection of drivers but can barely afford them. They’re definitely not dumping money into shit like facial recognition. I don’t even need an ID to ride the bus. I can walk on with empty pockets and no one is gonna tell me I can’t ride the bus without ID. If you drive without your license, you can get it taken away.
you live in utopia? (or luxemburg?)
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I’m sure !fuck_cars@lemmy.ml would be happy to welcome you if you decided to go with buses.
That community completely ignores reality for
millionsbillions of people that absolutely need a car to live a life in the thousands of cities that don’t have adequate public transportation and 100% of the rural areas in the world.
The Mozilla report in case some readers missed it: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
People are starting to comment on the topic and take notice? That is great to hear. It is not often that this happens when such a study is released. It might be that ordinary people who lack the knowledge on the subject may be able to comprehend the concerns regarding privacy in cars more readily than in other areas. Whatever the case is, I’m happy the discussion is finally happening.
Huge props to Mozilla on this one - their article is clear and thorough. A lot of the studies are very vague, limited in scope, or way too technical, which makes them hard to share and discuss broadly.
Ever since Jeep released their current gen Cherokee and two hackers revealed that they could hack into the entirety of the car by just knowing the phone number of the car’s hotspot, I have avoided new cars like the plague
I’m not sure how much it matters that people are taking notice. If all cars are doing it, what can we do? It’s not like people can’t buy cars anymore and it’s not like individual people can pay off politicians to make it illegal like large corporations can to make it legal.
There are a few options I guess. If enough people notice then there may be more money in being the company that respects privacy and just charges more for the car up front.
It might even encourage more people to buy used instead of new.
Or some people might just decide they don’t need a car.Caring is the first step to actively doing something. The more people that know, the more that will care and the more people that will act. Gotta start somewhere.
The more people who notice, the more who care. The more who care, the more capital to be gained by proposing and / or supporting regulation.
We won’t get free healthcare (in the states) or housing, but this is something trivial enough that I could see politicians making a play.
Guys honestly just buy a kei car like a Honda N-Van and a phone mount. 42 mpg, spacious, tons of cargo capacity, comparatively minuscule carbon footprint, and a basic 2din radio.
I don’t have to worry about this stuff, because my car is too old to have RFID, or GPS tracking
Thanks for this. I’m not in USA but I had chatgpt summarize my vehicle manufacturers privacy policy. Its wasn’t great, so I sent an email to their privacy inbox. Next, I’ll email my politicians.
Frankly, I can’t believe how many different posts I’ve seen about that article today. Amazing.
lol that’s why I don’t want a modern car. aside from the sensors in the engine, there’s no others, so I’m not concerned about privacy lol
There’s no S in IOT
The S in IoT stands for Security
My joke but better
That’s why I’m glad I have an older car that doesn’t have any computer crap in it. I don’t want to have to jailbreak my car for it to be usable.
How exactly do they collect info other than GPS?
How are people interacting with the “radio” that it’s given so much info?
Are new vehicles required to be connected to phone network to function?
What functionality is lost of not connected.
As a motorist who prefers to drive cheap cars that have a little tech as possible so that there is little to go wrong and what goes wrong I can fix myself I know nothing about the latest gen of cars
Cars are mandated to have a “SIM” (I don’t know how this is implemented, that’s a question for the engineers) inside that can be connected at all times. This was originally meant for faster accident response, and I’m assuming car companies have contracts with the Telecom companies (someone from the engineering/law teams help me here) to transmit data over their networks even when the user’s devices are not connected
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