Car companies spying on owners

If your curious about what and how much data your vehicle is spewing out to whom, the sit is called "PRIVACY4CARS", here is the link: https://privacy4cars.com/
Ive been using it for a while, Ive run vins on new Denali's sitting at dealers, you can run your own vin, goto the top wher it say "For Consumers", you will get a roll down, then hit "Vehicle Privacy Report", you will then get a good idea what your vehicle is doing, click on the icons starting at the right top, they will tell you what it is then have a "YES", "NO, or "SILENT", then look at the info produced by your vin on the rest of the page, you will then want to keep your vin covered, enjoy the rest of the site, it has much more info.

Im currently helping a friend who purchased a new Ram Limited, so Im trying to figure out how to do things without affecting the warranty, as for when I get my new Denali, I have already figured out what to do, there wont be a phone attached to it so I'll be using a data plan on the infotainment system supplied by OnStar, I want to do an experiment to see if and what the dealer service computers receive by shutting certain things down, just so you know, Im very serious about my privacy, right now its the wild west for data harvesting, you can thank the politicians for letting this get out of hand.

Just for fun here is a silly hypothetical scenario, are there companies that want to know when you use the toilet or what hand you wipe your butt with??, the answer is HELL YA, your infotainment system GPS has recorded you visit Taco Bell 3 times a week then you abuse your self more by visiting Chipotle's on the weekend, the toilet paper manufactures will pay for this info, then your Amazon Echo or Google Home with their microphones will hear how many times you flush the toilet, this is data mining gold, their not supposed to listen to people talk, but they can listen to other things, now that we've established you use a lot of toilet paper, data from many other people in your area shows they do almost the same thing or very similar, then you go to the store in your area to buy toilet paper, and you say to yourself, why is toilet paper more expensive on average in my area, the problem here is, its done with everything, never thank a politician, always back hand them.
 
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Dusdaddy said:
One question I have on this video. Has anyone shown that that they have sold personal info? I mean like your name, address, etc. and driving habits? I find that one a stretch without specific consent above and beyond what you consented to for use of the system. General info like 40% of GMC owners are hard on brakes, I get. But not Tim Esterdahl is hard on brakes. That's what I want to know, did they cross that line? Even Steve's video was vague on that.
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They probably go just up to the line of what is legal to sell. I do know email addresses are sold all the time. That's one of the common threads nefarious people can use to link all data back to personal information. If they have location, travel, and spending habits from one source they can just link it from another source and know where you live and what accounts you've created. I suspect it won't be long, if it isn't already happening, before thieves use this data to know when someone is a big spender who isn't at home during certain times and goes to their house to rob them. All that data is the same stuff intel agencies gather and use. Now the big companies are just making it easier by selling it.
 
duggydo said:
They probably go just up to the line of what is legal to sell. I do know email addresses are sold all the time. That's one of the common threads nefarious people can use to link all data back to personal information. If they have location, travel, and spending habits from one source they can just link it from another source and know where you live and what accounts you've created. I suspect it won't be long, if it isn't already happening, before thieves use this data to know when someone is a big spender who isn't at home during certain times and goes to their house to rob them. All that data is the same stuff intel agencies gather and use. Now the big companies are just making it easier by selling it.
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No hacking needed. They could just watch their social media feeds and see them posting about some fancy dinner across town and know they aren't home...lol. Plus, so many pics people take with phones still have the geo-location turned on.
 
Opting out is not enough of an option, you cannot trust companies to not using the data and its been proven over and over, you must shutdown the data right at the source, meaning in your vehicle, currently there is no option that shows up on the infotainment system showing you what data is being sent, there should be an option listing what data is being sent with checkmarks that can be removed if you don't agree or want, and its that easy to do, but OEM;s haven't done it, to find out if certain data has actually been shut off can be checked very easily, you just need the right equipment, granted there are not many people out there with the right equipment to do this kind of work, but there is people who have this equipment, maybe the rise of awareness that your car is spying on you is an incentive for people in the electronics business to get involved and start shutting this shit down, I can see the lawsuits from the OEM's, it would be a cat and mouse game.

GM's OnStar is a matured system and uses redundancy choosing the best desired signal between cellular, wifi and satellite, there are many different way I can go, if I just want to end it all, I can pull the shark fin apart do the faraday cage and toss in tinfoil or aluminum widow screen and then go after the interior wifi antenna, but there are some services I want to use, just remember, if your in an area with poor or no signal for any of the three services, your data gets buffered into memory, and when a good signal is hit, the buffer is unloaded. So far from what I can see with Stellantis and maybe Ford is they use Sirius satellite's services as they have been a two way service for a while now, so Im sure they use it for piggyback redundancy for their cellular and wifi, you will notice you cant delete the Sirius app, thats a tell tale that there is possible data flow going on in the background, until I study this more, this is what I have for now. At this point you must let the OEM know your not happy and very pissed at the spying they call data harvesting, be adamant about it by letting them know it could deter you actually purchasing the vehicle, then tell them its creepy, I personally would use harsh language, I don't like creeps watching me.
 
Posted this article yesterday. One GM owner is actually suing GM, LexisNexis and OnStar over privacy violations. His driving data ended up in the hands of automotive insurers, and he got denied by 7 companies, and when he finally found an insurer, it was at double the rate. This is why you don't want your driving data sold. We give up a lot of privacy in our online lives, but this right here is a problem. https://pickuptrucktalk.com/2024/03/gm-lexisnexis-lawsuit-filed-over-data-collection/
 
Fightnfire said:
I just went and checked "myGMC" app I don't pay to subscribe to any content including data, crash detection, Onstar etc. The Onstar Smart Driver program is not set up and contains no data of mine. If people haven't set it up, or opted out and it's being sent out of house then I understand their issue. Keep in mind, collecting data is one thing selling it when opted out is another.

My guess is they opted out of the program but in the TOS or EULA just by having it you grant permission to collect data. I would be surprised if that data was being sold and not just collected.

I also just double checked the app, just by using the app and not subscribing to anything you are agreeing to the "User terms for application services" and "Privacy statement" I'm not going to read through it right now.
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One of the problems per the lawsuit I posted below is a lot of drivers somehow get "Smart Driver" set up without their knowledge.
 
jillciminillo said:
One of the problems per the lawsuit I posted below is a lot of drivers somehow get "Smart Driver" set up without their knowledge.
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The answer to this is many companies including GM will have everything turned on till you turn it off yourself, they just hope you don't notice or care, you can have GM's app on you phone or infotainment system with everything turned off, thinking your safe, the problem is updates to the app itself, many companies with have their app reset to what ever they want after an update they claim is for bugs and other things, you have to go back into the app to reset everything you wanted, and yes these apps can retain your settings during an update, this is a slimy way a company gets what it wants from you, they claim everything must be reset to their setting because of the complexity of their software, in most cases that's crap, you have to ask what is GM gathering if you don't setup the app. This has to be addressed by CEO Mary Barra, not some flunky media rep, my advise to her would be, don't start your speech off with "at GM we respect your privacy", I would take that as an insult, they've been caught, when you read any of GM's TOS or EULA's, they always start off saying they respect your privacy, then half way down the page they basically say they are going to rape you for your personal data, Im one of these people that read everything. CEO Mary Barra is walking a tightrope in the wind right now with shareholders, GM cannot afford to lose sales, and being a part of aiding and abetting financial strain on a customer doesn't help especially if the word gets bigger, and it is.
 
I just watched Steve Lehto’s follow up to this story. He’s got a good point about how GM responded. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still selling the data.
 
duggydo said:
I just watched Steve Lehto’s follow up to this story. He’s got a good point about how GM responded. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still selling the data.
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I won’t be surprised if Steve does another story or to on this down the road. Hopefully one of the mainstream media outlets like The NY Times or ARS Technica will follow up on the story with GM to answer some of the points Steve brought up.
 
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