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Mozilla flunks 25 major car brands for data privacy fails
(www.theregister.com)
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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Technology
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If a car is advertised as smart or connected, there's a good chance it collects too much personal information.
That's too bad because most new cars are, and it may cause some people to keep their old polluting but privacy-friendly car longer.
Really goes for almost everything. I don't want my machines and appliances to be 'smart' and 'connected'. I just want them to do the thing I use them for, that's it.
Fuck IoT
All my homies hate IoT
The only things that are allowed internet in my house are computers, and phones. (And game systems, if someone brings one over.)
Not our cars, not our dash cams, not our fucking refrigerator.
IoT itself isn't bad. It's the companies that are using it to spy on you. If IoT is FOSS/Libre it is good.
But I agree that not everything should have internet access especially if it's proprietary.
None of my appliances need to be connected to the internet. That’s asinine. (Not directed at you, more “old-man-yells-at-Cloud”)
I think the distinction is need. I dont like it when its mandatory, but i dont mind that the option is there. E.g some people like preheaing their oven on the drive home(or a warning that something on the stove is on if accodently left on), or in case of the dryer, when its done.
One common one I think is helpful is those who may have forgotton to close their garage. Easy way to check without having to drive back and do so.
All new cars - Bruce Schneier wrote in cryptogram that he tried to buy a new car without a permanent internet connection to the manufacturer and it wasn't possible.
I'm probably never buying a car newer than the one I have. Everything is so ridiculous now. Though if I can just physically disable the WAN communication it uses I guess that's fine too, though it would likely be expensive to get working again for resale.
It bothers me enough that my car is even capable of doing any kind of steering input I didn't give it myself, brakes are by wire too, but fully depressing the pedal still connects you to the hydraulics directly so kind of a non issue, it allows for AEB which is a good safety feature though I'll likely never trip it.
My current car I think can do some kind of connection but I disabled it in the firmware when I flashed the BCM. Not missed, did nothing of benefit to me afaik.
Physically disabling WAN can be a workaround, assuming is can be done and reverse without damage. But it's not a good solution.
Manufacturers have ways to degrade experience/features when the owner physically disable WAN: deny features and security updates (by doing OTA updates only), drag their feet or void warranty if WAN is disabled, design some features to be unnecessarily dependant on some cloud/online services (eg navigation, media features, ...).
They cannot void your warranty over that, maybe for the computer you modified but the Magnuson Moss warranty act means they have to honor the warranty unless they can prove your modifications caused the damage.
Also, who cares if it gets updates? It will continue to work as it did from the factory indefinitely. Security updates aren't necessary if the car isn't connected to the internet and those updates cant change how the immobilizer/keys work anyways.
Things can suddenly or progressively break after a while if a system gets too far behind regarding updates.
A few plausible examples: