‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Automatic Transmission – a data-privacy study of connected vehicles

262 points · 235 comments · rafaelc

  1. hattar · · focus · HN ↗
    I currently drive a mid 2000s Ford truck, which runs great and meets my needs, but lately I got interested in minivans/people carriers. I pretty quickly realized that newer vehicles seem to not just record, but export a lot of driving data.

    The minivan market is small. There are really only 4-5 available and every single one sends telemetry data from the car and makes it hard/impossible to opt out of selling your data. Additionally, without pretty extensive work there is no means of physically disabling the telemetry, which forces you to trust they'll honor your opt out request (vs re-enabling it with some update).

    I'm clearly in the vast minority on this, but it's so frustrating that there are no options beyond buying and installing a third-party bypass to disable this type of tracking. Worse, I'm aware that the absence of data is data itself. Is my insurance going raise my rates because my vehicle won't provide telemetry for them to buy?

    1. mistrial9 · · focus · HN ↗
      > absence of data is data itself

      oh that is endless.. if you are aware enough to do something about telemetry IMHO do that and don't obsess about loose ends.

      1. helterskelter2 · · focus · HN ↗
        I wonder how easy it would be to spoof the data sent back. Either with SQL injections, LLM prompt modification, or just thousands of goatse images.
        1. Iolaum · · focus · HN ↗
          And risk having lawyers after you?
          1. tejtm · · focus · HN ↗
            I am pretty sure goatse does not have lawers and the RIAA disavows their collection
          2. antonvs · · focus · HN ↗
            What exactly are lawyers going to do?

            It’s foolish to be afraid of nonexistent threats.

        2. MrDrMcCoy · · focus · HN ↗
          Spoofing is all well and fine, but you can do more. Put as much bandwidth through that modem as possible. Those connections are meant for light data telemetry and their carrier agreement probably has caps. All the better and more expensive for them if they don't.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.