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USA: Court rules automakers can record and intercept owner text messages
(therecord.media)
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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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Probably a stupid question...
What about CarPlay and Android Auto? Is that being intercepted by the car manufacturer?
My basic understanding is Android Auto is pretty much an external monitor for your phone.
Edit: speeling irrers
You got me curious as well so I googled it and it looks like CarPlay just uses the screen as a monitor with no messages or anything downloaded:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252600482
Now I wonder what kind of system these vehicles have that downloads text messages. Is that a function of the Bluetooth connectivity or is it a vendor application?
I connected Bluetooth to my car, and first thing it asked was if I wanted to allow access to my texts, call logs, and contacts.
I admit, i think I did it once. It acted like it didn't work. Idk. It periodically still asks though. It doesn't do this if I connect my phone to the car through Andriod Auto.
I believe there’s also some dashboard touchscreens you can separately buy that use CarPlay.
So for now, using one of those instead of the system built into the car is a potential way to circumvent automakers that are keeping your data/texts.
At least if you want the benefits of using a dashboard touchscreen that your phone connects to.
I'm curious about this as well. I know my car can access phone records and contacts for Bluetooth calling outside of AA, but what about everything else? I also thought it was just an external monitor for all of my other apps.
That may be why GM is not going to be putting Car Play and Android Auto next year.
Bingo, they want to hoover up all that data. Between subscriptions for hardware functionality and data mining, they want to turn cars into recurring revenue streams.
My guess is that some non-insignificant (though certainly not large) new portion of buyers will replace their head units, assuming they keep the double DIN standard. It's trivial to change out currently.
Of course if too many people do it they'll change the slot and make the wiring harness an incomprehensible mess. One wire now controls your left rear audio channel, rolls down all your windows, and deploys caltrops if the police are behind you. If you wire things incorrectly it locks you in and sets the car on fire.
Definitely, forgot about that, calls do seem to go via the cars factory Bluetooth system. I can unplug my phone mid call and it jumps to the cars own call screen.
So phone number, duration and possibly caller/contact name would be known by the factory headunit and any other information Bluetooth shares with the connect device.
I don't think the car manufacturer is getting that data, but iirc the part of Android Auto that runs on the head unit does collect data when disconnected, then send it to Google when the phone is connected.