Originally published at: New vehicles a "privacy nightmare" where you consent to carmakers collecting data on behavioral, biological, even sexual activity | Boing Boing
…
3 Likes
Nissan says they can collect information about your “sexual activity”
Hmm, so who’s having sex in parked cars? Mostly teenagers. So Nissan is letting us know that they’re recording information about the sexual activity of minors. You know, you might want to think that one through a bit, Nissan …
29 Likes
In a sane legal system, any of these “contracts” that you agree to after purchase of a non-trivially-returnable item should be considered null and void. Who is going to return their car because the privacy provision in the consent for the car’s system has fucky provisions? They have the consumer over a barrel because the consumer has already committed themselves to the purchase of the item, in the case of a car likely involving large loans.
17 Likes
And because all the big car companies do the same. No choice if you want a modern vehicle, especially an EV
4 Likes
Genetic characteristics?! The #€££ does that mean?
I won’t even do a 23 and me; I don’t want that out in the wild …
(Edit: corrected typo (gosh darn tiny buttons mashed during boring meeting…))
7 Likes
Found the alien!
12 Likes
Have you seen a lot of the cars today? I can barely get my fat ass in them, let alone have sex in one. Now, my parent’s 1973 Chrysler Newport that we had when I was in high school - that was a car you could have sex in.
5 Likes
the link seems to be to “about:blank” ?
here’s the article i think
10 Likes
Is it just me, or is the first link in the article about:blank?
I’m assuming it should link to https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/
1 Like
Hmm. So, to prevent this at home, we use ad blockers, tracking blockers, anti-malware protection, and firewalls. Checking around, I see some interest in in-car firewalls, but also see a general consensus that such firewalls, usually intended to protect just the critical engineering computers, will be just as ineffective and easily bypassed as most “crunchy out shell, soft white underbelly” security solutions are in other applications. This is due to the innumerable holes in said firewall to a myriad of remote locations so the greed-pigs and tattletales can suck out your personal data as mentioned in the article.
So, how does this data get transmitted? Via a 3g/4g/5g network, or occasionally wifi when that’s available. All of those, as anyone who has been following the antics at Defcon and similar venues, can be almost trivially spoofed, and of course a local in-car transmitter will always be more powerful than a cell tower or relative far away wifi hub. Hardware to do so is legal for things like signal boosting and getting signals into shielded or enclosed areas, so combine a COTS system like that with a decent firewall, and you’ve at least got a start.
The real problem is that you, the consumer, can’t control what your car reports about you, but with such a network security system you could at least control what goes into/out of your car’s network when it is running. Such a system, which would have to be a full-on firewall and cell/wifi interface, would be quite expensive based on the cost of the ones designed for home/office use, so it seems it would be a niche market at best, but I bet someone makes a fortune with one.
Me, I think I’d get a copy of the wiring schematics, and put a couple of hard switches between the networking systems and any antennas, or if they’re inaccessible put a bit of grounded aluminum foil around the antennas as a Faraday cage. Eventually the hackers will figure out how to lobotomize the system so it just drives the vehicle instead of spying on you. In the meanwhile, I guess I’ll keep driving my old gas-guzzler, which only has blutooth for things like hands-free cell calls, but if/when an efficient, compact EV pickup ever makes it onto the market, I may just run with this idea.
6 Likes
ummmm, OK, I guess?
1 Like
It’s pretty clear fennec foxes are magic aliens
6 Likes
i had to go see this:
Third parties to whom Disclosed for Business Purpose Service providers, marketing and promotional partners, and third parties for operational purposes (e.g., dealers)
Types of Personal Data Collected Sensitive personal information, including driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information
yikes
i guess they respect my privacy’s ability to make them a profit.
6 Likes
7 Likes
Spritely auralmancers; the lot of them.
2 Likes
I wasn’t even trying to hide….
2 Likes
This was more-or-less my thought as well, but the obvious question is how the car reacts to that, and what happens when you go in for warranty service.
2 Likes
I was wondering if the Nissan sex thing had something, somehow, to do with this:
but apparently that was a Hyundai.
3 Likes
All of this data is tied to the VIN number of the car, which is in display of your vehicle from the outside.
In addition to a lot of folks that have that information: When you go take the car into service. Your state’s DMV. Whom ever walks by your car in the parking lot… It’s almost like US social security numbers where it shouldn’t be used to personally identify people by law but absolutely used to personally identify people.
So yes, everything is horrible.
4 Likes
