AMA: We're the Researchers who looked into the privacy of the 25 top car brands

Re:AMA: We're the Researchers who looked into the privacy of... by mindslight on Thursday September 21, 2023 @11:21AM (#37598987)

My biggest question is which makes/models can have the surveillance anti-features disabled by unplugging a specific module or two, while losing as little legitimate functionality as possible.

Using products the ways we want rather the way manufacturers tell us to is what the tech community used to focus on. It's certainly not a panacea, but it is better than news articles remarking how everything is so broken but in the end just giving in. Barring something like a non-loopholed US GDPR making the surveillance business illegal, self help against corporate control is all we've got.

Also there are a lot of people comfortable working on cars for which this could be a gateway to seeing tech as something that can be modded and controlled rather than an impenetrable black box.

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Re:AMA: We're the Researchers who looked into the privacy of... by autoexec on Thursday September 21, 2023 @12:39PM (#37600227)

> My biggest question is which makes/models can have the surveillance anti-features disabled by unplugging a specific module or two, while losing as little legitimate functionality as possible.

Onstar usually lives in a box that can be physically disconnected. That'll keep them from spying on you/your car even if you've never activated or used their service. I never enable bluetooth on my phone, but my car still has an AUX port and I'll plug my phone into that. If I charge my phone by plugging it into the car's USB ports I use a data blocker.

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