We all know automakers want to keep tabs on their cars. Stolen vehicle tracking? Sure. Fleet management? Fine. Microphone eavesdropping to serve more ads? Hate it, but OK, that’s a thing. Hold onto your tin-foil hats: Ford just filed a patent for something that takes vehicle tracking into full-blown Twilight Zone territory. Always-On Tracking… In Your Car, or Somebody Else’s.
The car listening to everything you say is absolutely not ok.
I get that’s not what this article is about, but I hate how they’re getting creepier and creepier things normalized.
That article was what gave me the idea to search the patent database. All sorts of creepy shit in the pipeline. Stay tuned.
Some fun stuff, automatic dog treat dispensers and stuff, but mostly appalling violations of your privacy. Welcome to the future, where Dearborn is always watching.
I’ve thought of creating a tracking-free app for modern cars that would be vendor agnostic so if your family has 2 or 3 cars from different manufacturers, it’d still be the same app instead of 3. But even if I do no tracking, the car company will still track the vehicle, they only lose out on the data from your phone, which likely isn’t nearly as interesting for them anyways.
It’s why the rare times I end up going in my college club instructors EV I tend to stay fairly quiet. Quieter than normal.
Unfortunately I think the ICE cars are just as stalkerish at this point (if the EV=creepy implication is intended). Kia and nissan even have bits in their privacy policies about monitoring sexual activity somehow.
I am simply flabbergasted to find that you are correct about KIA.
Collected information: Health, sex life, or sexual orientation.
Oh man I was just repeating what I read from an article, but there’s so much more in that list.
racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs; union membership; genetic data; unique biometric information; citizenship or immigration status; contents of certain mail, emails, and text messages; or health, sex life or sexual orientation information.
Surely none of this could be used for nefarious purposes, right?
If you’re aiming towards fully autonomous vehicles, having the vehicles know precisely where they are, as well as the knowing where the vehicles around them are, is key to avoiding accidents as well as for more efficient traffic flow.
Not saying the aren’t privacy concerns and all that goes along with it. Just pointing out that there are some legitimate cases that rely on the same technology backbone.
Right, there are legitimate cases for this. The argument, though, is that these companies are not to be trusted.
I bought a new Toyota recently, and know from others that their app has some car tracking built in to it, where once you connect the app to the car you can see info on trips and gas mileage and such. When I bought mine, though, I carefully read all the T&Cs, and specifically declined the one that said it would sell my driving data to third parties. Guess what? I don’t see that historical data. A minor inconvenience, but it lets you know who they consider their real customers to be.
I’m amazed you could decline it and still get any functionality. Every app or website I have seen goes all or nothing.
There were, like, six or seven different agreements, I read them all and only declined the most egregious ones, that explicitly said they would share my data with third parties without limit. I understand they need an agreement to cover basic data sharing between me and them, but I will not consent to having them immediately send the data to my insurance agent (or the government).
Very reasonable.
I’ve spent some time noodling on that exact question.
It’d be great if we had a better functioning civil society, where the government and the 4th estate could insist on basic protections for citizens, and the corporations would be steered away from the worst profit-seeking excesses that they’ll get into without the extra guidance.
What do I know, though? I’m a comedian ;) 100% agree with you that there is a happy middle ground between new tech and privacy/civil liberties, but I’m doubtful that I’ll ever personally set foot on it with the way things are trending.
Until the brave masses start slaughtering the “elite” we’re doomed to plod through the current status quo, which, to paraphrase Dr. Horrible, is absolutely NOT quo.
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i doubt the rick and morty version of “purge” can actually happen, where the female led an uprising that slaughtered all the elite people.
If you own a car made after like 2012, look into disabling the DCM/telematics system for your model. Pull the fuse, or unplug the cables, or straight up remove all the hardware. Its not a perfect and comprehensive solution but it’s something.
Smart.
I think that’s why Ford is patenting this specific tech. It prevents you from being able to turn off the tracking, by leveraging every Ford that has NOT turned off tracking to spot the vehicle that is “running dark.”
Or drive a rust bucket
I probably will at some point, but right now the convenience of starting my car from my phone is too high.
As if I needed another reason to not buy a Ford.
That’s how you catch the Joker.
I hate that Batman predicted this.
This is why I scream curses constantly inside my car. Go ahead and mine that data fuckwads. You’re gonna learn I fucking hate NJ drivers.
Until they sell that data to your auto insurance company.
My cars are all over 20 years old. I won’t have to worry about that for a while. Well,I do have a 2020 vehicle but it’s temporary.
