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.
Comment on ‘Modern cars are a privacy nightmare,’ the worst Mozilla’s seen
DrMango@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
Not trying to be a turd, I’m genuinely curious
Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
So… hows the industry for stripping all this crap and then some. Cant imagine there isnt one for atleast repair and replacement.
Jarix@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
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.
PutangInaMo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
standard protocol on a lot of cars is to just download everything off the phone that it can access.
First I’m hearing about this capability. How do you figure they’re doing that with a Bluetooth connection?
Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
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.
stalfoss@lemm.ee 1 year ago
They’ve all got cell phone modems in them essentially. They use LTE or whatever it’s called these days.
dodos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.
Auli@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
It’s simple they have modems in them.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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.