Cars collect a lot of our personal data, and car companies disclose a lot of that data to third parties. It’s often unclear what’s being collected, and what’s being shared and with whom. A recent New York Times article highlighted how data is shared by G.M. with insurance companies, sometimes without clear knowledge from the driver. If you’re curious about what your car knows about you, you might be able to find out. In some cases, you may even be able to opt out of some of that sharing of data.
I don’t think most older vehicles have any internet connection, regardless of what safety equipment they have. Or am I wrong?
Depends on how old, but OnStar has been around since before 2000.
Early implementations may have been less creepy, but I’m not sure there’s any way to know.
Depends on the vehicle. Mine is mid-2010s but no internet connection to my knowledge—unless they’ve been paying for it in secret without telling me. Doesn’t seem especially likely.
Mime is from 2016 and does. There’s no outward indication (the smartest thing exposed to the driver is Sirius XM), but the salesman told me it could be located in the event of theft, and it has microphones in it.
Interesting. Well maybe I’ll have to do some research.