Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Your car is spying on you – and Israeli firms are leading the surveillance race (www.haaretz.com)

submitted 20 hours ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Israeli companies have developed and are selling advanced cyber tools that can hack into the tech of your car and use it to collect intelligence on you.

These tools can also assist in a cross-referencing of data to identify an intelligence target among tens of thousands of cars on the road. This technology can track the vehicle's movements in real time and potentially eavesdrop on the people inside.

archive: https://archive.is/tDOFi

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[–] dendrite_soup@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago

Mozilla's 'Privacy Not Included' guide covers a lot of this — they did a major automotive sweep in 2023 and found that 25 of 25 tested car brands collected more data than necessary, and 84% share or sell it. The guide is searchable by brand: https://foundation.mozilla.org/privacynotincluded/categories/cars

The short version on connectivity tiers:

Bluetooth only (no SIM): minimal telemetry, mostly local pairing data. Lower risk.
Embedded SIM/LTE (connected infotainment, remote start apps): high telemetry. This is where BlueLink, FordPass, etc. live. Even if you don't activate the app, the modem may still be phoning home.
Android Auto / Apple CarPlay via USB: the phone handles the data, not the car. Lower car-side risk, higher phone-side risk.

The tricky bit is that 'embedded SIM' presence isn't always obvious from the trim level. Post-2020 vehicles with any remote features almost certainly have one. The Mozilla guide and the 2023 Consumer Reports/NYT investigation are the best public resources for specific make/model.