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29 comments

  • This article just seems like an ad

    • Which is exactly what I said when it was posted earlier.

      The website seems scammy too. Got a banner at the top warning that you don't have GCP or some nonsense thing they're selling for "security".

      Nah, this guy is a scammer, looking to cash in on fear mongering.

      Not to say what our cars do isn't a HUGE problem , it is. But he just comes across as icky. Not like he wants to help people, just help people give him their Vin and who knows what else.

      Look, scammer, you don't need a Vin to tell people how to address this. Just make, model, trim, features. Cause here's the thing... If it ain't got a newer/fancy "entertainment" system or specifically markets remote diags, then it's just local data that I doubt the owner can easily remove.

      Having worked on many cars, vendor data is getting harder and harder to access, even though OBDII is a standard. Vendors still implement special codes. Generic readers may not even be able to read secondary systems, like transmission. If that is hard to access, how much harder is telemetry?

      Anyway,simply knowing the brand would tell you which telemetry vendor they contracted with. After that it's just based on the model.

    • Still has good information though.

      Prefer this type vs. others.

      Consumers in the dark

      Most drivers have no idea what data their car is collecting because other than through Privacy4Cars it can be very hard to track down and digest the information. The privacy disclosures for the four cars mentioned above involved between nine and 12 unique documents, and each ran between 55,00 and 60,000 words, according to the Privacy4Cars site.

      Older cars appear not to be immune. A check for a 2012 Honda Odyssey, for example, revealed the vehicle collects data from synced phones, geolocation information and compiles personal identifiers and user profiles.

      Car owners should use the app to wipe data particularly when they buy or sell a used car and return vehicles to car rental agencies or leasing companies, Amico said, although most people don’t know they should do so.

      Four out of five used cars contain the data of previous owners since most owners and subsequently car dealers don’t wipe them clean, he said.

      In some cases cars even store pieces of code from previous drivers that can allow old owners to access new owners’ data. Most cars’ infotainment systems also store text messages and other unencrypted data.

      Amico’s services aren’t foolproof. The FBI, for instance, still might be able to hack into the car’s systems and extract data. But they do make it a “hell of a lot harder” for them or anyone else to do so.

      Even those unworried about getting entangled with the FBI have serious reasons to delete their data, he said.

      “If you have a navigation system, you have about a 50/50 chance that you can press two buttons and show up inside the house of somebody because you press ‘go home’ and then you pop the garage open,” Amico said.

29 comments