Privacy

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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 1 day ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

top 5 comments

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[–] mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

jokes on them, my car is offline only

[–] plateee@piefed.social 9 points 1 day ago

I never signed up for the Hyundai BlueLink thing. The dealership pushed it - hard.

"It used to be free for the first year and $40/year after, now it's free for life, so why not do it?"

"You can start your car in the office and let it warm up outside!"

"The sales agent will get in trouble if you don't activate BlueLink!"

Well, I never activated so hopefully, whatever driving metrics it's gathering aren't directly associated with me. (One day I may dig under the hood and try to find the cell antenna and disconnect it.)

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 3 points 20 hours ago

My car is from 2015 with no working app connectivity. So good luck tracking that.

They’ll track me through my phone instead. okay_meme.jpg

[–] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Would love to know of a resource for looking up the amount of telemetry being collected by make/model/year. Like, is this stuff only on cars with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay/inbuilt GPS, or anything that uses Bluetooth?

[–] dendrite_soup@lemmy.ml 5 points 15 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.