Consumer group finds ‘Connected Services’ feature can send personal and vehicle data to third parties, with drivers told removing components risks voiding warranty
I understand that they can share my location, but what personal information will they share? Are they photographing me inside my car? Are they recording me and sending it to the company? How do they know who my grandmother is unless I said her name out loud?
Whenever you connect your phone to any car with a handsfree system via any means (BT, USB, App) you have the option to allow it to access and store your contacts, phone call log, and text messages. If you install the companion app should your car have remote features, this app can collect even more data this way. If you say “call grandma” to handsfree or select her via the infotainment system, the car knows this and the manufacturer does too. The manufacturer can then save her number according to their policy and locate her. As a company they can perform a data sale/trade with their third parties and find out her real name if you don’t have it saved (Yes this is how companies have profiles on you even if you never used them.) Depending on the manufacturer, yes your car does actively send recordings back to the manufacturer from the microphone built in the cabin.
As the other comment says, they can do a lot more than just location.
But even with just location, they can figure out where you work, what stores you visit, what protests you attend, what hobbies you have, who your friends and family are, and so much more. If you regularly drive someone else in your car, a child for example, they’ll also know all these things about them too.
They can know all of your children by buying that data from others. If one of your children is in middle school and one in elementary, they know which one is in the car by which location and time you picked them up.
If you regularly go to a soccer field after picking up the kid in middle school, they now know that that kid is interested in soccer. They can sell this data to advertising companies who will use it to show your family soccer ball ads, cleats ads, tickets to soccer games, etc.
Verify that your device does not share your contact book and texts over bluetooth (will break the infotainment built in “call X person” feature should you use that over your phones assistant for some reason)
Its usually in the bluetooth settings for a particular device paired to your phone
Can they share personal information if you don’t connect to Android Auto?
They have their own cellular modems
I understand that they can share my location, but what personal information will they share? Are they photographing me inside my car? Are they recording me and sending it to the company? How do they know who my grandmother is unless I said her name out loud?
Whenever you connect your phone to any car with a handsfree system via any means (BT, USB, App) you have the option to allow it to access and store your contacts, phone call log, and text messages. If you install the companion app should your car have remote features, this app can collect even more data this way. If you say “call grandma” to handsfree or select her via the infotainment system, the car knows this and the manufacturer does too. The manufacturer can then save her number according to their policy and locate her. As a company they can perform a data sale/trade with their third parties and find out her real name if you don’t have it saved (Yes this is how companies have profiles on you even if you never used them.) Depending on the manufacturer, yes your car does actively send recordings back to the manufacturer from the microphone built in the cabin.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
As the other comment says, they can do a lot more than just location.
But even with just location, they can figure out where you work, what stores you visit, what protests you attend, what hobbies you have, who your friends and family are, and so much more. If you regularly drive someone else in your car, a child for example, they’ll also know all these things about them too.
I suppose they could mine data about the vicinity of the machine to find out more, but how would they know the specific child with me in the car?
They can know all of your children by buying that data from others. If one of your children is in middle school and one in elementary, they know which one is in the car by which location and time you picked them up.
If you regularly go to a soccer field after picking up the kid in middle school, they now know that that kid is interested in soccer. They can sell this data to advertising companies who will use it to show your family soccer ball ads, cleats ads, tickets to soccer games, etc.
It’s insane how coordinated companies are when it comes to this.
Thanks for the explanation.
Aside from everything else, you’re describing a world where you don’t feel safe in your own car
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Verify that your device does not share your contact book and texts over bluetooth (will break the infotainment built in “call X person” feature should you use that over your phones assistant for some reason)
Its usually in the bluetooth settings for a particular device paired to your phone
I use an MP3 player to play music in a car and I don’t connect my mobile phone to the car at all.