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Car is a smartphone on wheels. Here's who's listening

208 points · 139 comments · longhaul

  1. hecturchi · · focus · HN ↗
    I obtained my data via GDPR request from Audi. Despite having disabled telemetry and location services, remote access and so on on certain date, the car kept sending every destination address I wrote on the navigator to the motherbase. Other location tracking services did stop (i.e. no live positioning).

    I'm still clarifying the purpose of this before making a complaint to the data authority.

    1. kccqzy · · focus · HN ↗
      My car infotainment UI clarifies that it has offline routing and online traffic-aware routing. The latter sends destinations to the mothership.
      1. hecturchi · · focus · HN ↗
        Reasonable explanation. Why would they store them though once the traffic info is provided? I was hoping it has a "purpose", i.e. making the voice assistant more intelligent/helpful. But I need to ask about it.
    2. dmschulman · · focus · HN ↗
      It&#x27;s another revenue stream for the car company. Data brokers love car telemetry and GPS data and the car companies know it. Both parties have struck up a rather cosy relationship: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;adamtanner&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;10&#x2F;data-broker-offers-new-service-showing-where-they-have-spotted-your-car&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;adamtanner&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;10&#x2F;data-brok...
    3. abcd_f · · focus · HN ↗
      Can you describe the process of the GDPR request?
      1. hecturchi · · focus · HN ↗
        You write to the email address in the privacy policy and ask for your data. Your LLM can assist in making it sound formal.
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