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Car Manufacturers Are Tracking Millions of Cars (boingboing.net)
Cory Doctorow writes:
Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are "connected," having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks to the "explicit consent" of the car owners -- who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.
Slashdot reader Luthair adds that "OnStar infamously has done this for some time, even if the vehicle's owner was not a subscriber of their services." But now 78 million cars have an embedded cyber connection, according to one report, with analysts predicting 98% of new cars will be "connected" by 2021. The Washington Post calls it "Big Brother on Wheels."
"Carmakers have turned on a powerful spigot of precious personal data, often without owners' knowledge, transforming the automobile from a machine that helps us travel to a sophisticated computer on wheels that offers even more access to our personal habits and behaviors than smartphones do."
Slashdot reader Luthair adds that "OnStar infamously has done this for some time, even if the vehicle's owner was not a subscriber of their services." But now 78 million cars have an embedded cyber connection, according to one report, with analysts predicting 98% of new cars will be "connected" by 2021. The Washington Post calls it "Big Brother on Wheels."
"Carmakers have turned on a powerful spigot of precious personal data, often without owners' knowledge, transforming the automobile from a machine that helps us travel to a sophisticated computer on wheels that offers even more access to our personal habits and behaviors than smartphones do."
What about second-hand buyers? They don't typically sign a contract with original dealer or manufacturer.
Table-ized A.I.
I can't find the source any more but any 2018 and later year model vehicle in US must be sold with remote engine kill capability. That's why I bought a 2017 car and will keep it for as long as it runs, and then I'll be digging some old junker with a distributor and carburetor.
As of 18th May there are strong limits on slurping up data without explicit buy in from the subject.
Gm uses the phone they build into the car whether you like it or not, and whether you bought minutes or not. And if it can't find a cell tower, it goes satellite. Yup, more than one band is available.
I know this is true on my 2012 Volt - because I can still use the car phone in places where cell phones do not have any bars at all, and don't work. But it's expensive and I haven't bought any minutes in years.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
The infotainment system in my 2012 Prius requires a tethered phone for its Internet uplink in order for its dumb little infotainment apps to work. I never set that up so the page full of apps is totally useless.
However! The MP3 player is somehow displaying cover art that is definitely not included in any ID3 tags or anywhere else on the USB flash drive. So it must be sending track title info ... somewhere ... somehow ... and getting JPEG images back.
Which means that someone, somewhere, has a list of all the songs I've played in my car, no doubt tagged with my VIN and correlated with my true name.
What other data are the collecting? The car does have an excellent interior mic for use with bluetooth.