Technology

We just bought a new car this year (Kia) and I completely confused the sales lady when I told her we were not going to use the "connect app" or activate connect on the car itself. She was like "lets get you setup in connect" and I was "no thanks"

We have a nice 🚫 symbol with a radio tree behind it, so I 100% know the car is still connected to the cell network but it is not registered/connected to us, and no app installed.

Sure, we lose some functionality (remote start, and access to in-car wifi) but all of that is paid subscriptions. Sure they first x months are 'free' but after you gotta pony up $ to continue.

Note: I'm under no illusion tracking is just not happening for us now... I just want to make it harder where I can.

My car isn’t because it’s old and stupid.

Researchers connected each vehicle to a custom WiFi access point and logged all outgoing traffic.

The article talks about both apps and the vehicles themselves. I would really like to see more info on what the cars do when you take the apps out of the equation. Are there any that don't phone home unless you explicitly give them internet access?

A study about the results will be published this week.

I look forward to reading this.

Edit: actually there's quite a bit more detailed info at https://automatictransmission.khoury.northeastern.edu/

Would REALLY love to de-surveillance my vehicle if anybody has any tips (please quietly make the "buy an old car instead" jokes to yourself)

And if I were to use a screwdriver to pop a component off of the motherboard, which website would tell me the component to target for my make/model?

I'm driving my crv until the wheels fall off and then I'm gluing them back on

Similar findings as:

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

and https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/cars-and-drivers-2024-year-review

Petition: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/campaigns/car-companies/

The one time I'm happy that Toyota was so far behind the competition - I've a 2020 Prius and its infotainment looks a decade out of date but that means it's very offline.

Would rather drive a rust bucket. I do drive a rust bucket. I'm not affraid of scratching it. I don't feel I have to always keep it pristine clean. I'm not affraid of working on it myself. I'm not being ~~charged~~ robbed subscriptions for equipment already installed. I'm not wondering wether I'm being tracked by sick fucking creeps.

I hate this style of titles. I'm a gearhead and own 5 vehicles and a motorcycle. None of them are a smartphone on wheels, the newest one is newly 20 years old.

2006 car with manual transmission. There's exactly enough computer in it to run the ignition and oil change timer.

I have a 2008 car, it doesn't even chime when I don't put my seatbelt on.

After driving a 2024 Subaru, I realize that I am a very fortunate person, and I live a life of silence and peaceful reflection.

2010 models at the latest, I am only going to own old vehicles until this beeping madness ends.

How long until new models show advertisements on the dash related to your conversations? Three years, tops.

I hope the study specifically publishes the data on the Model 3. I bought one before I became much more privacy conscious, but I've done my best to mitigate the leakage from that. In doing so, I read through all of Tesla's terms and conditions upon opt out and sending any of my information or information that can be used to identify or profile me, should never be sold to advertisers. I write software licenses for a living so I'm pretty confident in my reading on this. It would be interesting to see what can currently be mitigated by changing some settings and what cannot.

I just need to get from point a to point b. I don't need some goddamn home entertainment system connected to everything else.

No it's not. You don't know what my car is and is not.

The ECU in my 1991 Chevy k2500 is little more than a desk calculator that can turn throttle position into injector duty cycle and ignition timing. Good luck advertising companies.

Just get yourself a '97 4Runner, there are no trackers in a '97 4Runner.

Interesting to see Subaru at the very bottom - barely anything, but Toyota is the opposite, sucking up big data like they're General Motors

Edit: can confirm my car isn't doing anything - when I upgraded my head unit, I discovered unconnected wires where a telemetry module would be

While I have a 2024 Honda Civic, it doesn't have a cell connection (though it does have a form of GPS). I'm fine with that, but I'm surprised that it didn't even have that option.