How Much Are Cars Spying On Their Owners? (seattletimes.com) 101
"We're at a turning point for driving surveillance," reports the Washington Post (in an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader davidwr ). "In the 2020 model year, most new cars sold in the United States will come with built-in Internet connections, including 100 percent of Fords, GMs and BMWs and all but one model Toyota and Volkswagen."
Often included for free (or sold as an add-on), these connections mean "Cars are becoming smartphones on wheels," collecting and sending data "pretty much wherever their makers want. Some brands even reserve the right to use the data to track you down if you don't pay your bills...." On a recent drive, a 2017 Chevrolet collected my precise location. It stored my phone's ID and the people I called. It judged my acceleration and braking style, beaming back reports to its maker General Motors over an always-on Internet connection... Modern vehicles don't just have one computer. There are multiple, interconnected brains that can generate up to 25 gigabytes of data per hour from sensors all over the car... Most hide what they're collecting and sharing behind privacy policies written in the kind of language only a lawyer's mother could love...
The Tesla Model 3 can collect video snippets from the car's many cameras. Coming next: face data, used to personalize the vehicle and track driver attention... Coming 5G cellular networks promise to link cars to the Internet with ultra-fast, ultra-high-capacity connections. As wireless connections get cheaper and data becomes more valuable, anything the car knows about you is fair game. GM's view, echoed by many other automakers, is that we gave them permission for all of this...
Five years ago, 20 automakers signed on to volunteer privacy standards, pledging to "provide customers with clear, meaningful information about the types of information collected and how it is used," as well as "ways for customers to manage their data." But when I called eight of the largest automakers, not even one offered a dashboard for customers to look at, download and control their data.... GM's privacy policy, which the company says it will update before the end of 2019, says it may "use anonymized information or share it with third parties for any legitimate business purpose." Such as whom? "The details of those third-party relationships are confidential," said GM spokesman David Caldwell.
There are more questions. GM's privacy policy says it will comply with legal data demands. How often does it share our data with the government? GM doesn't offer a transparency report like tech companies do....
GM said "much" of their data can't be linked to a specific person, though the Post adds that "there were clues to what more GM knows on its website and app. It offers a Smart Driver score -- a measure of good driving -- based on how hard you brake and turn, and how often you drive late at night."
Meanwhile, the Post also reports that OnStar's privacy policy lets them keep the data they collect "pretty much forever... At least smartphone apps like Google Maps let you turn off and delete location history."
Car and Driver noted that the Post's reporter even found photos of his phone's contacts, concluding "Your car is collecting and transmitting a lot more data than you think." In 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office looked at automakers and their data privacy policies and found that the 13 car companies it looked at are not exactly using best practices. For example, while the automakers say they obtain "explicit consumer consent before collecting data," the GAO says they "offered few options besides opting out of all connected vehicle services to consumers who did not want to share their data."
Often included for free (or sold as an add-on), these connections mean "Cars are becoming smartphones on wheels," collecting and sending data "pretty much wherever their makers want. Some brands even reserve the right to use the data to track you down if you don't pay your bills...." On a recent drive, a 2017 Chevrolet collected my precise location. It stored my phone's ID and the people I called. It judged my acceleration and braking style, beaming back reports to its maker General Motors over an always-on Internet connection... Modern vehicles don't just have one computer. There are multiple, interconnected brains that can generate up to 25 gigabytes of data per hour from sensors all over the car... Most hide what they're collecting and sharing behind privacy policies written in the kind of language only a lawyer's mother could love...
The Tesla Model 3 can collect video snippets from the car's many cameras. Coming next: face data, used to personalize the vehicle and track driver attention... Coming 5G cellular networks promise to link cars to the Internet with ultra-fast, ultra-high-capacity connections. As wireless connections get cheaper and data becomes more valuable, anything the car knows about you is fair game. GM's view, echoed by many other automakers, is that we gave them permission for all of this...
Five years ago, 20 automakers signed on to volunteer privacy standards, pledging to "provide customers with clear, meaningful information about the types of information collected and how it is used," as well as "ways for customers to manage their data." But when I called eight of the largest automakers, not even one offered a dashboard for customers to look at, download and control their data.... GM's privacy policy, which the company says it will update before the end of 2019, says it may "use anonymized information or share it with third parties for any legitimate business purpose." Such as whom? "The details of those third-party relationships are confidential," said GM spokesman David Caldwell.
There are more questions. GM's privacy policy says it will comply with legal data demands. How often does it share our data with the government? GM doesn't offer a transparency report like tech companies do....
GM said "much" of their data can't be linked to a specific person, though the Post adds that "there were clues to what more GM knows on its website and app. It offers a Smart Driver score -- a measure of good driving -- based on how hard you brake and turn, and how often you drive late at night."
Meanwhile, the Post also reports that OnStar's privacy policy lets them keep the data they collect "pretty much forever... At least smartphone apps like Google Maps let you turn off and delete location history."
Car and Driver noted that the Post's reporter even found photos of his phone's contacts, concluding "Your car is collecting and transmitting a lot more data than you think." In 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office looked at automakers and their data privacy policies and found that the 13 car companies it looked at are not exactly using best practices. For example, while the automakers say they obtain "explicit consumer consent before collecting data," the GAO says they "offered few options besides opting out of all connected vehicle services to consumers who did not want to share their data."
Imagine the spying possibilities of such cars (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
It's almost like, imagine that the supposedly private conversations of rights-bearing citizens are subjected to Orwellian oversight... despite the fact that most of the intelligence gathering is voluntary, it's almost as if the governmental collection of information has gone too far.
Re: Imagine the spying possibilities of such cars (Score:4, Insightful)
"despite the fact that most of the intelligence gathering is voluntary"
None if this Orwellian surveillance is voluntary in any meaningful way. Yes, you _could_ go live in a cabin in the wilderness and never work or otherwise interact with society. If you have a few million in the bank, that is.
But if you want to live a normal life, using normal tools, you have zero choice but to "consent" to being spied on at all times. It's about as voluntary as a mugging.
Re: (Score:2)
Buy used.
Re: (Score:1)
From exact mic triangulation in streets of the sounds of a crime in real time, FBI using lots of utility poles for total street collection.
The smart phone thats always on and secure privacy of a smart car with a live mic is just a nice extra this decade for US police and the FBI.
The criminals keep on buying smartphones and buying new networked cars
Then wonder why they have a constant inform
Re: Imagine the spying possibilities of such cars (Score:3, Interesting)
Yet somehow - despite the Orwellian police state where no one has any privacy anywhere whatsoever - despite having one of the largest gulags in the history of the world - it's still unsafe to walk downtown at night.
It's almost like all this totalitarian tech isn't being used to protect the common people from crime at all. Maybe, just maybe, all this totalitarian tech was installed to facilitate... wait for it... totalitarianism.
How many "criminals" caught by this tech committed the "crime" of political diss
Re: (Score:1)
Re "to protect the common people from crime at all" now people all over the USA can see who the criminals are
Thanks to good people installing networked camera systems to do what the failed city police will not.
Re "the "crime" of political dissent" stealing a package from a persons door is not "the "crime" of political dissent"
Re "The tame news media obviously aren't going
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Imagine the spying possibilities of such cars (Score:4, Interesting)
after the person is dead, and nobody would know.
Like Michael Hastings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Soon after Hastings' death, questions were raised about the crash that took his life.
Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard A. Clarke said that what is known about the crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack." He was quoted as saying: "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers - including the United States - know how to remotely seize control of a car. So if there were a cyber attack on [Hastings'] car â" and I'm not saying there was, I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."[69]
Re: (Score:2)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex/Second Gig had episodes where Section 9 could get position locks on cars and shut them down remotely "when necessary". Of course they were the show's heroes, so they only did it in the interest of national security. Heh.
Re: (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard A. Clarke said that what is known about the crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack." He was quoted as saying: "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powersâ"including the United Statesâ"know how to remotely seize control of a car. So if there were a cyber attack on [Hastings'] car â" and I'm not saying there was, I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."[69]
Re: (Score:2)
Those would be the non-heroic ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Richard Clarke is nutjob, relying on his opinion for anything is silly.
Re: (Score:2)
We don't need to imagine about the insurance stuff. You can already accept a "black box" that lets them monitor your driving in exchange for a lower premium.
They don't work very well. A friend had get insurance cancelled and was charged with driving without insurance. Turns out the box's GPS position was off and they thought she was doing 60 on a 30 MPH road every day.
The insurance company provided a letter that got her off the criminal charge in the end but it cost her a hell of a lot more than she saved.
The answer... (Score:2)
How Much Are Cars Spying On Their Owners?
Too much.
The Elites Must Be Really Scared Of Us... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The only thing you're wrong about is thinking this is something new. The kings and lords have always been above "normal" law, that we've mostly brought them down to equality under the law is an improvement, not a fault. While I think the elites are now willing to throw some under the bus to save their position, it's still better than before where one's "high-born" testimony would count much more than that of an "common" testimony of average Joe. Perfect justice still won't happen until we know absolute trut
Re: (Score:2)
The Elites Must Be Really Scared Of Us...
Number one fear : I'm guessing = they don't want anyone to come into their house while they are sleeping and take their shit/ do them harm and take their shit. Or some variation.
People with shit worry a lot about losing said shit. Hence lobbyist. And socially acceptable bribery.
Copyright protections, patents, trademarks, home security systems, life lock , safes. etc etc.
It's kinda crazy. It all boils down to basic primal animal instinct, like a dog snapping at a hand reaching for it's food bowl.
Re:The Elites Must Be Really Scared Of Us... (Score:4, Funny)
Number one fear . . .
surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope . . .
Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms . . .
Nobody expects the Elite Inquisition!
I wish (Score:2)
Sometimes I wish the 1% of the 1% escaped, that the president didn't have Siri listening in suite at Mar-A-Lago, that the Secretary of State didn't have cheap Chinese IoT devices and Alexa on their home network, along with classified emails. As it happens, the rich have MORE Alexa, more Siri - smart watches on the wrist even I the bathroom.
Even more than thr restnog us, they are targets of marketers and worse.
And so - "Alexa, send classified documents to China".
You'll never be an eliter (Score:1, Informative)
Is that why Trump's every utterance's been "leaked" [thehill.com]?
No. Everyone [nytimes.com] is tracked — and elites are in particular, because there is money and fame to be made from them.
So shove your class warfare already, this is not an "elites vs. plebs" problem...
Re: (Score:3)
Is that why Trump's every utterance's been "leaked"?
No, that's because everyone hates working with him and will vent to the press. Not becaue his car is spying on him.
Although that iphone he's using to tweet all the time certainly is leaking location data and who knows what else.
Re: (Score:1)
You contradict yourself, first saying "No", but they justifying the "Yes"...
Which it also does — high-end cars are "spying" on their owners more, not less.
Re: (Score:3)
Who pushes and simultaneously escapes this surveillance? The 1% of the top 1% of earners.
NYTimes was able to reconstruct president's movements from an easily obtainable data set. Nobody escapes surveillance. And it's not like 0.01% are hard to track - these kinds of people usually have servants who are easily tracked.
Basically, privacy is dead. Get over it. Instead it makes sense to fight for transparency.
Re: (Score:2)
Surveillance, surveillance everywhere. Every move we make tracked. Who pushes and simultaneously escapes this surveillance? The 1% of the top 1% of earners. I hate to play conspiracy theorist, but maybe this finally is the "New World Order" these inbreds have wanted to push on humanity for decades. The elites are unsurveilled and powerful. We plebs are watched 24/7. Information is Power.
This is exactly it, hear it from former national security advisor of the United states:
Zbigniew Brzezinski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Few options besides opting out entirely... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Relax. This information will only be used for " any legitimate business purpose".
So calm down. Only legitimate businesses operating legitimately in the US will have legitimate reasons to collect and sell/use the millions of data points you create for them annually.
It's only illegitimate foreign bastards that we have to fear. Places like China and Cuba and Somewherestan and Tasmania have to be blocked. They are evil and illegitimate.
We cannot allow a legitimacy gap!
Re: (Score:2)
>"Opting out entirely (if it's still possible) doesn't sound half bad, actually."
1) I doubt any manufacturer would or will allow this.
2) Opting out wouldn't mean the data wasn't collected and sent, and they just claim to not store it or act on it.
3) How can you believe they will do what they claim?
4) What happens when a court orders them to do something or they get hacked?
The only true privacy is to not have such data collected/stored in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Please tell me how to do this. I have looked for hours trying to figure out how to remove the SIM. Mine is soldered to the board to the best of my knowledge. I can remove the cellular modem however in mine, but I loose the compass and some other base features which I like.
Re: (Score:2)
Opting out entirely (if it's still possible) doesn't sound half bad, actually.
I expect that if you opt out, the car will only go in "Limp mode", if at all. It will only be for "your own safety and peace of mind". If that is not the case already, wait for a future update.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Actually this is false (not the coward part). I have 100% opted out of OnStar, I get monthly updates from my vehicle about several systems in the vehicle. The dealer put in my email address since I negotiated the price online. OnStar got it some how and I have called them 5 times in the last 2 years, telling them I want every piece of data they have collected destroyed, and to stop collecting data and I still get the monthly reports. I am about to pull the cellular modem out of the car as that is the on
Dont want a spy car (Score:2)
The only networking then is when the service work is done.
Need a smartphone? Bring a smartphone with you. GPS? Buy an extra GPS device that has a great deal on map support.
Learn to read a map.
Reduce the amount of "based on how hard you brake and turn, and how often you drive late at night" data that can be collected by "asking" what new and used cars "collect".
Buy as needed.
Tell the world about what privacy respecting brand you fo
Re: (Score:2)
Dont buy a spy car. Lots of ways to "buy" a not networked car...
Please share them.
Re: (Score:2)
Safest is to buy an antique built in the 1960's or maybe 1970's.
Cars with carburetors - before they had fuel injectors - are unlikely to have computers at all.
Once you have a fuel injector, though, it's likely that it's logging your speed/fuel-consumption/accelerator-pedal-position/etc.
Re: (Score:2)
My car built in '57 doesn't have a single semiconductor device, or perhaps, it might have a single diode.
Re: (Score:2)
Generator or alternator?
Re: (Score:2)
Generator, of course, with an electro-mechanical regulator.
The diode, if it exists, is in the fuel pump. Originally, the fuel pumps used a capacitor to suppress contact arcing, but later units use a quench diode.
Re: (Score:2)
Mechanical fuel injection is a thing:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/c... [roadandtrack.com]
Re:Dont want a spy car (Score:4, Informative)
Once you have a fuel injector, though, it's likely that it's logging your speed/fuel-consumption/accelerator-pedal-position/etc.
Most pre-OBD-II cars didn't store logging data. They did have keepalive memory and build a LUT but that was it. Also, the earliest fuel injected vehicles had mechanical fuel injection, even gassers. They didn't even have computers. This was especially true of diesels, though. Up through 1991, Mercedes diesels used fully mechanical Bosch M or MW fuel injection, with no computers at all. Same for Dodge diesel pickups through 1998 (pre-1994 VP44, 1994-1998 Bosch P7100), Ford diesel pickups until 1994.5 (Stanadyne DB-2), and GM trucks through 1993 (Also DB-2). (1994-2001 6.5 liter diesels had throttle by wire, Stanadyne DS-4.)
However, all 1996+ vehicles (and a small handful of earlier ones from 1994 or so) had OBD-II systems which have "freeze frame" data storage, which would keep a minute of logging data around any fault; from 30 seconds before to 30 seconds after the most serious code was set. And some of them will store multiple freeze frame data sets.
Re:Dont want a spy car (Score:4, Informative)
My 2001 has computer throttle and traction control, but the only storage is error codes. If you want "freeze frame" you have to record the data off the bus yourself. It provides lots of data if you plug something in that reads it. But not storage.
Re: (Score:2)
My 2001 has computer throttle and traction control, but the only storage is error codes. If you want "freeze frame" you have to record the data off the bus yourself. It provides lots of data if you plug something in that reads it. But not storage.
What is it?
Re: (Score:2)
Nissan. But most cars are the same way.
The extra freeze frame data is available when using the manufacturer diagnostics computer, the memory is in that part.
That's true from when they first added the OBD-II (early 90s in most cases) all the way up until spyware, which is only in the last 5 or 10 years for most.
Re: (Score:2)
The extra freeze frame data is available when using the manufacturer diagnostics computer, the memory is in that part.
That's true from when they first added the OBD-II (early 90s in most cases) all the way up until spyware, which is only in the last 5 or 10 years for most.
It's not true at all in my experience. My el cheapo harbor freight scanner will retrieve freeze frame data from every vehicle I've tried it on so far. My understanding (based on dim recollection from when I took a class to prepare for the ASE A-6) is that it's actually a mandatory part of the OBD-II spec. I was even able to view the freeze frame data on our Sprinter, even though I wasn't able to pull all the codes. (In the T1N sprinter, a boost leak will cause limp mode and set a code, but won't illuminate
Re: (Score:2)
The freeze frame that is a required part of the OBD-II standard is not the minute window of data described above, it is a single frame; all the sensor data at the moment the fault was detected.
Re: (Score:1)
Think of the years that networked "smart" was an optional extra that very few would pay for.
Think of the next few years when smart was a "free" part of every car sold.
The smart networking was not a part of every car going back decades.
Going back years recall the costs and sales of phone home tech in cars.....
The tech was once an upgrade... different brands trying different networks and systems..
Shop around for the last of that new generation that did
Disconnect the cellular antenna.. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Where is the antenna?
It's not obvious on many modern cars where the antenna is.
Re: (Score:2)
Where is the antenna? Doesn't matter... (Score:2)
You dig around in the dash until you find where the coax connects into the internet-connecting thing (cellular modem, for example).
My truck came with OnStar. Not even a week into owning it, they started calling ME trying to sell me more services. Half an hour under the dash, found the cellular modem antenna coax and disconnected it. I didn't even bother with the dummy load, figuring that the cellular modem would be smart enough to detect a high VSWR condition and stop transmitting (and if it wasn't that sma
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course the Average Person won't even bother or even think it's necessary or even 'smart' to do this, they want all the ridiculous bells-and-whistles that cars come with.
Re: (Score:2)
Dealership? What's that (Tesla owner here).
I have read reports that it is in one of the door mirrors.
Re: (Score:2)
Car won't start (Score:3)
1. User disconnects antenna, and replaces it with a 50 ohm load....
2. Car won't start. Driver display posts "Internet connection failure, tow to nearest dealer for service.
3. Owner glossed over the sales contract which stated the car must be able to make a continuous connection to the Internet in order to be used.
4. Owner reconnects antenna, and car starts. Owner curses under their breath and gets with the program.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thant won't work if an encrypted connection to the mothership is what authorizes the car to start.
This was by the way a sarcastic post.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
eventual possibility.
For many people with car loans this has been the reality for years already.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought those devices were just remote kill switches. As far as I know they don't require a connection to start unless the kill switch has been engaged.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>"There are plenty of parts of the US with spotty to non-existent smell-phone coverage, so this wouldn't work. Yet. Fortunately."
All the car has to do is store the data and then send it all once it DOES have a connection. Storage is cheap. A connection will happen at some point, even if it is just at a dealer for service. Other models might also degrade or shut off important services if they never get a connection. This is why those who think they can just cut the antenna might be in for a surprise.
W
Re: (Score:2)
Not likely. I own one of the most "connected" cars (Tesla) and it doesn't require an Internet connection to start.
Re: (Score:2)
I own one of the most "connected" cars (Tesla) and it doesn't require an Internet connection to start.
Until some future software "upgrade".
Re: (Score:2)
Caveat Emptor. What kind of asshat would agree to such terms?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
..and connect the cable to a 50 ohm dummy load. Problem solved.
You're assuming it'll default to "if I can't get any updates, I'll keep going" but I suspect it'll be more like "if I can't get any updates I'll nag and restrict your driving until you relent". It's not hard to create a device that'll function until it loses contact with the mother ship. You'd be surprised to know how much really works that way.
Re: (Score:2)
Been collecting for awhile (Score:5, Informative)
On a recent drive, a 2017 Chevrolet collected my precise location. It stored my phone's ID and the people I called.
The collecting has been going on since at least 2013 I think. My father owns a Nissan truck that I sometimes drive and I have my phone paired to the bluetooth. I received a call from the local Nissan dealer once over something. The truck paperwork is all registered with my father, he would have never given them my cell number, and yet, I received a phone call from the dealer over a checkup or something. The only thing I could come up with is they pulled the number off the stored data with the bluetooth (the truck has no internet). So ya, dealers have been scrapping data from vehicles for years now.
Re: Been collecting for awhile (Score:1)
First (Score:2)
First they came for the traffic violations, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a traffic violator.
Then they came for the pedophiles, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a pedophile.
Then they came for the sales people, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a sales person.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Re: (Score:3)
Then they came for the sales people, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a sales person.
Well actually, I would probably help go after the sales guys.
Hopefully none at all (Score:1)
New cars? A shitload. (Score:2)
New cars are spying on people like crazy. My car isn't spying on shit. The only "computers" in the car are the glow plug timer and the EGR controller, and whatever stereo I happen to have installed (which is currently none, but I'll put some other dumb POS in there eventually. All I need is a line in.)
Let them try (Score:2)
I would love for them to try and track my flip phone. Since I don't connect it to anything other than for charging, and it isn't a "smart" phone, they'll be shit out of luck.
Then again, I have no intention of buying any car for as long as I can. My nine year old stick shift isn't crippled with spyware or other shitty software, has real buttons I can operate by touch, and no obnoxious screens to get in the way of operation. Just the way I like it.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Next up is facial recognition to track people directly. I hear there are some makeup techniques to fool it
Buy an old restored card instead? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Using the same old tech.
Using any new tech thats better.
Keep the looks. The sound. Be able to start in the cold, hot every time
Just ask for no phone home tech and its good.
Works until the state govs pass more "green" laws and only allow classic cars on private land/private race tracks.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
The old internal combustion engine, a new internal combustion engine, a design with batteries.
Past few years has seen a lot of really good classic work done with really good batteries.
there is a little antenna on top of my new ford (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Digitaly Crippled Technology (Score:1)
What happens when the connected autonomous vehicle gets a virus or gets hit with the latest ransomware? They get grounded or bricked (totalled by insurance) while the self-contained, fully autonomous vehicles maintain operational reliability similar to traditional vehicl
Don't care (Score:2)
I care if my cars defraud me.
How much? 100% (Score:2)
My last rental car openly acknowledged it was calling home will all kinds of inappropriate 'performance' data, and in fact forced me to read the message and hit OK in order to use the other dashboard controls. It might not have been obvious what it meant to someone a little less tech savvy but it was certainly not trying to hide what was happening. No option to turn it off, of course.
That's on top of the GPS system that also could not be turned off. It was hard enough just to disable the display (all you
One Attribute Of Technology (Score:1)
All the time. So what? (Score:3)
You are being spied on all the time. By your Web browser, your computer, your cell phone, your "smart" devices, your neighbors' doorbell cameras, business surveillance cameras, traffic cameras, your cell phone provider, your internet provider, every store you walk into, every web site you visit. You are swimming in a sea of "spying." Want to escape? You'd better move to northern Canada and go off the grid.
What do all these spies want with you? No, _you_ really aren't that important. They just want to sell you stuff. They want to know your habits and characteristics not because they really care about them, but these become parts of your "tag cloud" that they use to target advertising to show you, in hopes that you will buy something. Even malware these days has this as its primary objective.
Your best bet? Take your grandma's advice. Be frugal. Make decisions based on good advice. Don't be impulsive. Ignore the tracking, you can't escape even if you try.
Re: (Score:2)
What do all these spies want with you? No, _you_ really aren't that important. They just want to sell you stuff.
Or deny you stuff. It's easy to wave off all this spying if you're healthy and normal, but if you're sick or a "statistical anomaly", your life can be made a living hell in a hurry and the moral majority won't give a toss.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So what's your alternative?
And by the way, those statistical anomaly people...they had a rough life before the internet too.
Easy fix (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
On my truck, you can remove the daughter card (the cellular modem), and only the OnStar quits working. That and the compass the dash.
Can only be used for good right? (Score:2)
Who would possibly be interested in knowing if you drive a lot late at night?
This has insurance written all over it, and it will cost you a lot.