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evacide

Mozilla's new report on the data privacy of modern cars is nightmare fuel. Enshittification has definitely hit the car industry: foundation.mozilla.org/en/priv

41 comments
n3wjack

@evacide any idea how those brands handle this in the EU?

Jon

@n3wjack @evacide Two of the reviewed brands are EU only. Significantly different results due to EU privacy laws.

n3wjack

@jonpainterphoto @evacide I read that too. It would be interesting to know how e.g. Tesla handles the EU differently. I bet they have to, due to GDPR.

DELETED

@evacide One more reason for me to keep my 2011 Mazda2.

Soup For My Family

@evacide reaffirming my desire to buy a car built last millennium

DELETED

@evacide I mean its shocking but how about you allos just don't f*** in your car so it can't collect that data? xD Some days (most) I'm quite confused by allos haha

Yellow Flag

@Anniiii @evacide Also, how about using a bike for your brothel visit? One of the less fancy ones, without built-in location tracking. 😅​

DELETED

@WPalant @evacide I mean you should do that even if your car doesn't track it! Don't pollute the planet, just so you can burn your money on the most unreasonable crap you can come up with xD

Sarah Breau

@Anniiii Yes, absolutely, the solution to giant corporations horrifyingly invading our privacy is for everyone who owns a car to simply stop doing anything that law enforcement might find questionable. This is definitely an individual problem, not a systemic one. Don't want to be charged with a crime? Then don't drive to an out of state clinic in your consumer spy car, am I right?

DELETED

@SarahBreau I mean if you think about it, if you don't f*** at all, you don't have a reason to get an abortion, so even if you live in a third world country like the USA where it in some places is banned to get one, you are safe. Your argument is only relevant if you're an allo (my condolences) and live in a third world country!

Amir Livne Bar-on

@evacide this is super worrisome. I wonder if it's possible to make changes to the agreement on an individual basis, e.g. to ask for terms preventing the car company from selling pictures of children

whereami

@Pashhur @evacide How would you even know if they breached the terms? The only acceptable solution is for it to not be possible for the company to collect the data in the first place.

Baron Vonskinnback

@billyjoebowers @evacide I just backed my company car because it was interfering with my driving, but now it looks like Kia were most likely going to be plundering my data, glad I only owned it for a few weeks, never installed the app & only drove it 400 miles before I realised it might have been the worst car ever built & threw it back at my company with extreme prejudice...

Clementine

@evacide If I don't live in the U.S. I would not have a car.

samuel

@evacide Without any surprise Tesla is #1 in collecting data and selling them to third party.

Peter Nimmo

@evacide @joepierce I wonder if this is any better in the UK or EU?

Nick

@Peternimmo @evacide @joepierce You would expect it to be better in the EU, particularly in Germany where the regulators are relatively strict, but just look at the list of brands and how many are German. Unless they have completely different data policies and approaches for EEA vehicles, which is possible.

Peter Nimmo

@Nickiquote @evacide @joepierce that's what I'm not sure about, although the article mentions things might be different in the EU

Nick

@Peternimmo @evacide @joepierce Theoretically it should be much better due to the comprehensive regulation by GDPR and in Germany especially where each company would need to appoint a semi-independent Data Protection Officer etc. But then you look at something like the VW emissions scandal and it doesn’t suggest that these companies have a great compliance culture, to say the least.

daria-andrea

@Peternimmo @joepierce Cyber Resilience Act and UN Regulation on Cybersecurity and Software Updates will change things a bit (in EU).

Wortex17

@evacide
Oh yeah, car features, where you pay for the privilege to be spied on (more)
*sigh i knew but i hoped better

Magnus Ahltorp

@evacide “It has the potential to cause real harm”.

You know what else has the potential to cause real harm?

Driving a car.

Jos

@evacide
My tesla: Wanna tell me who that was? Don't bother, I know, she has an X account. You may want one as well.
Me: no thanks, just got rid of it
My tesla: sure? I took pictures
Me: dude!
My tesla: the both you have a lot of contacts, wow! So.. Shall I create that X account for you now? X Blue, right?

Henrik Hemrin

@evacide One major lack of research: I cannot see any car related to Chines ownership. China is so big on cars nowadays, and China products are generally seen as a privacy concern from us outside. So strange none of those giants is included in the research.

Gonzalo Nemmi :runbsd:

@evacide wouldn't it be more effective/productive if we talk about the things that enshitification hasn't definitely hit?

Because, honesty, I have a really hard time thinking about anything that hasn't been enshitified .. and, personally, I would rather focus my time and resources on them.

Noir Lover

@evacide Unfortunately most people won't care. How many people have an Alexa in their home recording everything they say in exchange for the most minor convenience?

Pat Madigan 🇺🇸 🌊

@evacide That horrific bit towards the end, where Tesla says you can stop data collection, but your car will blow up - that’s very on brand for Tesla and Elon Musk.

Natha

@evacide Dear god. I was not aware of this nice initiative from the @mozilla. Not being a car owner, I’ll seriously keep this in mind. But, at the same, I came across the other deep privacy analysis of mental health apps. What the heck. foundation.mozilla.org/en/priv

Tristan Harward

@evacide Further evidence that a brand new electric car brand that focuses on simple, functional features and lots of buttons and knobs, with no extraneous data collection and enshittification, would sell like hotcakes.

Tak

@evacide there should be a tutorial on which antennas to break on your car, and how, as I'm pretty sure I don't care about these features anyhow.

Ezekiel :swift:

@evacide @sybren I am once again frustrated by the lack of explanation about whether these “dings” account for onboarding questions

My new car this year asked me plain English onboarding questions- and I can’t tell whether they account for those in the review

This happens a lot in reviews and is really frustrating - is my car ignoring the questions?? That’s even worse but is ignored

maya

@evacide is there any information on what year these things, or at least the more heinous aspects, were implemented? I figure anything with an XM radio and beyond..? Unsure.

JL Johnson :veri_mast:

@evacide @vmstan Sure am glad my car is old enough that it isn't all tech'd up. YIKES at this.

JL Johnson :veri_mast:

@evacide ALSO: I believe this is why GM is breaking up with Apple's Car Play in new models. They'd prefer that you use their built-in stuff, easier to scoop up data. I know a lot of folks are PISSED the new Blazer won't have car play.

huntingdon

@evacide

Superb articles from EFF. They need wider circulation. The car industry has been harvesting occupant data for more than two decades. It probably makes more money from it than selling the car.

As EFF points out, the range of data collected or inferred from a plethora of car sensors is invasive. Location, speed, direction, steering and pedal movements, naturally. Add heart rate, temperature, alertness level through facial and body cameras, collected and used without knowing consent.

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