A federal judge on Tuesday refused to bring back a class action lawsuit alleging four auto manufacturers had violated Washington state’s privacy laws by using vehicles’ on-board infotainment systems to record and intercept customers’ private text messages and mobile phone call logs.
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Considering the increase in sensors and rulings like this, paired with an increasingly car-dependent culture, what can an individual do about the privacy issues in cars?
Like, there’s no way to keep this from being captured, is there? Or are on-board options to disable functions enough?
If I ever get a “smart” car, the first thing I’m gonna do is disable the antenna … if I can find it…or cut the power, or wrap the transmitter in a metal cloth, or pull a fuse, or…
On the one hand, the only way for the car to function as an extension of the driver’s phone is to connect to and intercept transmissions to and from the phone.
On the other hand, this is freaking terrifying.
Given that I will likely one day have to replace my 2006 vehicle with its factory-installed cassette deck and CD player and no bluetooth, I wonder if simply finding and wrapping the car’s wifi antenna in tinfoil would be enough to block it phoning home? It goes without saying that my phone will not be connected to it.
That doesn’t mean they have to record and then transmit the messages to their servers, and then data-mine them, and then sell the information for profit.
The texts could stay local to the car’s info-center.
Agreed. But I don’t trust any carmaker to handle it this way.
Admittedly, I hope Apple is able to find a way to require that iPhones install an app to work with these cars. That would put them under privacy labels. It won’t stop the car phoning home on its own, but black box surveillance is a different issue.