Your car is selling your data

(theverge.com)

40 points | by bookofjoe 1 hour ago

7 comments

  • tomrod 25 minutes ago
    How can this be stopped, from a technical perspective? Can I wrap the comms in a Faraday cage?

    Obviously it would be better to have this action be illegal. But with legal privacy protections eroding in the US and other countries, it seems prudent to have a better understanding of the systems involved in the immoral surveillance.

    • natch 3 minutes ago
      [delayed]
    • willis936 16 minutes ago
      I've had good luck with pulling service manuals, finding the telematics antenna connectors, and unplugging them. It's popular to pull the telematics module fuse, but that typically disables internal microphones and GPS that are used by android auto and carplay. This severely degrades features spouses expect to just work. The antenna pulling is a much lighter touch.
    • schmeichel 23 minutes ago
      It is possible to remove the hardware itself that is responsible for this, but depending on the car it can very involved: https://arkadiyt.com/2026/05/13/removing-the-modem-and-gps-f...
    • WarmWash 13 minutes ago
      What sucks is that at least with my car, if you pull their access, you also lose all your remote access as well, and the ability to receive updates.
      • derwiki 5 minutes ago
        Why do you need remote access to your car? What updates does your car need?
      • ryandrake 5 minutes ago
        Why does a car need "remote access" and to "receive updates?" I'd consider this a bonus side effect.
        • ellisv 1 minute ago
          People who live in cold or hot places like to prestart the climate control in their car.
    • forgetfreeman 22 minutes ago
      Simple: don't own a vehicle with this capability.
      • tomrod 22 minutes ago
        Much like owning a home without an HOA attached, it is becoming harder and harder to meet this requirement.

        It also seems to conflict with `right-to-repair` laws if the capability is legally required.

        • calvinmorrison 2 minutes ago
          How do you think right-to-repair intersects with cars?

          An obvious thing may be to say the software must be published or the spec released, but we've had computers in cars since the 80s. It seems like a tall task but people can and do reverse engineer entire ECU systems (See Trionic Tuning)

          Another seemingly very obvious one - requiring manufacturers to publish specifications regarding ALL OBD interface options. Of course this immediately runs into trouble. Saab for example gated features of the security system to prevent key reprogramming, swapping of certain components without a dial out to the internet using specific saab software that runs on a laptop and interfaces.

        • cucumber3732842 2 minutes ago
          >Much like owning a home without an HOA attached, it is becoming harder and harder to meet this requirement.

          The near universal proliferation of owner's associations and management groups and whatnot for developments larger than ~1ac (the EPA threshold, some states/towns have lower) is something you can lay at the feet of the Clean Water Act and it's implementation and precedents over the following decades.

          The exact area of the buildings, the driveways, the community park and gazebo, etc, etc, are necessary features of the site plan that makes the math that is required to meet stormwater/environmental requirements. And and some legal entity has to be responsible for that in perpetuity. Enter the HOA. This is also why HOAs often won't allow you to expand your driveway or add a non-permeable patio, it could (prob not, but still) ruin the environmental calculations they're responsible for enforcing as a condition.

          I'm not nearly as familiar with car regulatory stuff but I would bet a lot of money that they're using OTA telematics to check some sort of compliance box...

  • cc62cf4a4f20 34 minutes ago
    That‘ll happen when you don‘t have meaningful data protection laws.
    • BlackRabbit1 0 minutes ago
      All European car manufacturers pull a crazy amount of telemetry data from your car.

      Either via 4G/5G link or during service interval.

    • derwiki 4 minutes ago
      Can I invoke CCPA to get a report of and/or delete my data?
    • amelius 6 minutes ago
      My question is why, with their protection laws, Smart TVs and Smart Cars are still sold in the EU?
  • bookofjoe 1 hour ago
  • amelius 8 minutes ago
    Smart Car is the new Smart TV.
  • wallkroft 36 minutes ago
    BREAKING: The water found in the ocean
  • jeffbee 17 minutes ago
    Contrary to the HN bias, but a way to avoid this if you want to get a new car full of tech gadgets is to get one that runs on Android Automotive. The privacy policy is a normal tech company privacy policy. Other cars come with privacy notices that just say they can give your data to anybody.
    • VCFundedGenYer 6 minutes ago
      1. Android Automotive is run by Google, so that entire argument goes out the window immediately, because Google

      2. Car companies bypass CarPlay/Android Auto with their own head units with software that executes before the projection software does.

  • everyone 26 minutes ago
    Another reason to use a car from 90's or 2000's.. Also they wont burn oil like a modern car + more durable and repairable metal parts.

    https://youtu.be/Ft12aZffCEg?si=qP1J5k6RXAxmZChf

    https://youtu.be/SeMZGICNSMg?si=-YLnt5Q477xpFbra

    https://youtu.be/8Kp108x4tQA?si=j7JV-_Dpl5afP99F

    • thrownawaysz 2 minutes ago
      >Another reason to use a car from 90's or 2000's

      Talking as an eastern european: unless you live in a sunshine place (~Mediterranean) most of the 90s car already eaten by the rust + the salt used for defrosting on roads in the winter.

      Sure _everything can be fixed_ but then your car becomes a hobby and might not everyone has an attitude and time for that.

    • herbst 13 minutes ago
      I really wanted a modern car because of the fancy automation stuff, I thought.

      But it never is economical or more environmental friendly.

      Whatever I saved on my old car compared to a newer one will never be less than the theoretical fuel savings on a newer car. Repair costs will never be as much (assuming you buy a popular repair friendly car). And nothing new needs to be built for me either.