Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He’s never been responsible for an accident.
So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor.
LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl’s request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page “consumer disclosure report,” which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn’t have is where they had driven the car.
On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking.
I think this should be legally prohibited. Also is it possible to physically disconnected the network modules so they can’t send anything?
If it doesn’t already, that’s probably going to put you in the high-risk group with other car modders.
How dare you demand privacy!
Simple answer that should always work: surround the chip/antenna with a faraday cage. The hardest part is finding the chip, not in disabling it.
Why not to just break the antenna (or whatever it has) in half? It’s much simpler and shouldn’t cause damage to the chip itself
The antennae only likely won’t reduce range enough. Check for an opt-out procedure prior to purchase since that’s easiest, then look for what fuse powers the connection (also easy), but worse case, lay eyes on the module itself and evaluate.
Yea I guess it’s a better choice
I can’t wait to see tuturials. I don’t know much about cars and would love to see people disable these, or perhaps do something malicious. Not that I have a new enough car yet, but I know one day it’s going to be unavoidable.
As long as you know where they are, a simple faraday cage should work perfectly. Basically, surround the module with an electrically conductive material to catch radio waves.
If you’re using android auto or something like that this information is going to be transmitted on the same connection used for navigation and internet so you better learn the map of the city again if you want to scape the Spyware.
I was thinking something like free data plan till they disable the transmitter or at least an unplug. Never bought a new car, do you agree to terms and conditions or sign a contract specifically mentioning/consenting to the tracking?
In Toyota’s there’s a red sticker on the dash talking about it and how to opt-out. (or at least I’ve seen it in a rental and a new car - but it might also be yanked by dealer’s PDI)
Somebody could go to jail for this. You.
The DMCA makes it a felony to circumvent protections in services. If they wanted to push this and depending on the system disabling or using some hack to bypass could be illegal.
I don’t think that anyone would actually bring the case against an individual, but a company selling any sort of device or instructions to make it easier for people could be targeted.
If they make disabling spyware illegal, I’ll do it anyways because human rights. If they decide to charge me for it, I’ll just consider it a violation of my freedoms