How to Figure Out What Your Car Knows About You (and Opt Out of Sharing When You Can)
How to Figure Out What Your Car Knows About You (and Opt Out of Sharing When You Can)
Cars collect a lot of our personal data, and car companies disclose a lot of that data to third parties. It’s often unclear what’s being collected, and what's being shared and with whom. A recent New York Times article highlighted how data is shared by G.M. with insurance companies, sometimes...
Ok, so to find out the privacy settings of my car I need to send more personal data to a random website....
Sigh, just give me a list of cars to choose from
I've looked at both the EFF and Mozilla reports. Literally every car manufacturer (available in the US) is absolute shit for data privacy.
I'll be driving my 2006 Subaru Forester until it falls apart on the side of the road.
Yeah, that is what I have seen as well, I have a 2021 Seat Leon PHEV, it has an integrated SOS and breakdown service button, and the Infotainment shows me a signal strength even though my phone isn't connected.
So I am probably fucked on that.
But I tend to constantly listen to podcasts, so if they record audio, I hope they are quite confused about the odd topics discussed
What new cars dont have smart features?
Is it the same as "dumb" TVs? None?
Because of a post earlier this week I’ve already started looking into this from a different angle. That angle being disabling the data from being transmitted since that is going to be the least intrusive and most reversible, and most trustworthy that my data isn’t being collected anyway(see google lawsuit or gravy analytics breach)
Not able to find the discussions online about my specific model of car but I have found a truck enthusiast forum that has some rather deep dives into disabling telemetry. They got so far down that rabbit hole that they found connections on the board that theoretically you could plug a usb into and reprogram it, but that’s getting too into the weeds if you ask me
I’m hoping it’s similar enough that it can apply to my car.
Got a link to the forum?
If you ever take the car to the dealership then they'll grab the data there and upload it. Same with any third party mechanics that have to use the manufacturer software to interface with your car computer.
Why do we have to provide a VIN instead of just a year, make, and model? I feel like entering my VIN into this website will just give them another metric to report on me, and help them link my online identity with my car identity.