Big Brother on wheels: Why your car company may know more about you than your spouse.

Nowadays there is so much fine print to everything you buy and use, most people do not even bother reading it. If you are buying or leasing a new car though, the manufacturer will get reports on your driving behavior, locations, braking patterns, speed, even the way you parallel park! If you buy it outright, I recommend you learn how to remove these

DETROIT — Daniel Dunn was about to sign a lease for a Honda Fit last year when a detail buried in the lengthy agreement caught his eye.

Honda wanted to track the location of his vehicle, the contract stated, according to Dunn — a stipulation that struck the 69-year-old Temecula, Calif., retiree as a bit odd. But Dunn was eager to drive away in his new car and, despite initial hesitation, he signed the document, a decision with which he has since made peace.

Dunn may consider his everyday driving habits mundane, but auto and privacy experts suspect that big automakers like Honda see them as anything but. By monitoring his everyday movements, an automaker can vacuum up a massive amount of personal information about someone like Dunn, everything from how fast he drives and how hard he brakes to how much fuel his car uses and the entertainment he prefers. The company can determine where he shops, the weather on his street, how often he wears his seat belt, what he was doing moments before a wreck — even where he likes to eat and how much he weighs.

Though drivers may not realize it, tens of millions of American cars are being monitored like Dunn’s, experts say, and the number increases with nearly every new vehicle that is leased or sold.

The result is that carmakers have turned on a powerful spigot of precious personal data, often without owners’ knowledge, transforming the automobile from a machine that helps us travel to a sophisticated computer on wheels that offers even more access to our personal habits and behaviors than smartphones do.

After being asked on multiple occasions what the company does with collected data, Natalie Kumaratne, a Honda spokeswoman, said that the company “cannot provide specifics at this time.” Kumaratne instead sent a copy of an owner’s manual for a Honda Clarity that notes that the vehicle is equipped with multiple monitoring systems that transmit data at a rate determined by Honda.

“Most people don’t realize how deeply ingrained their habits are and how where we park our car on a regular basis can tell someone many things about us,” Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said, noting that research shows that even aggregate data can be reinterpreted to track an individual’s habits. “There’s a load of anti-fraud companies and law enforcement agencies that would love to purchase this data, which can reveal our most intimate habits.”

“Ultimately, there’s no car privacy statute that car companies have to abide by,” he said. “Not only are automakers collecting a lot of data, they don’t have a particular regime that is regulating how they do it.”
And yet, Calo said, by collecting massive amounts of data, car companies could be setting themselves up for the 21st century’s ultimate Faustian bargain. The more data a company collects, the more incentive the company has to monetize that data.

“Any company that has tons of data about consumers and can control the interaction with them is going to have the capability and incentive to try to use that information to the company’s advantage — and possibly to the detriment of consumers,” Calo said.

Yea man, your cars are spying on you more than your phones. No doubt nullifying the vehicles ability to transmit this data will void your warranty. Stick to buying new cars in cash people, and then just disable data transmission on the newer models. I know I know, nothing to hide nothing to fear ... they already got our data, yada yada etc.. etc..

Enjoy the ride then I guess

IMO this is all just a test for what can come down the line in the future, making it easier to tax people for driving, monitor them fully as well(even if they say they don't there's access to it). As there's continuing talk of a millage tax to take place of gas taxes, because these energy efficient and electric cars aren't cutting it tax wise to the lawmakers because they save gas.

Last time around there was a lot of problems with the technology involved, some where taxed too much, others too less and some just had their cell phones turned off. Needless to say can't do this by cellphone without some invasive measures. It would have to be done with a device installed into a car, itself is invasive, similar to what this article is mentioning about the car.

I don't feel bad about my old vehicles anymore...

I've often wondered if cash for clunkers wasn't a scam just to bring this kind of crap into our lives. People like me that drive older vehicles and work on their cars/trucks generally don't spend as much money and generally like their privacy. Cash 4 clunkers got rid of all that. Parts are unavailable, as are cars at the boneyards, especially as how they had to wreck the motor to accept the vehicles that were traded in.
I know it supposed to be a economic booster, but it always makes me wonder how much more was really at play.

My dog knows more about me than my wife. The look on his face when I am on porn hub.

And yes, she will read this.

a reply to: Groot
no she won't and you know it!

a reply to: worldstarcountry

Three words...

Cash for clunkers..


Ymmv...

Respectfully,
~meathead

originally posted by: Hewhowaits
I don't feel bad about my old vehicles anymore...

I've often wondered if cash for clunkers wasn't a scam just to bring this kind of crap into our lives. People like me that drive older vehicles and work on their cars/trucks generally don't spend as much money and generally like their privacy. Cash 4 clunkers got rid of all that. Parts are unavailable, as are cars at the boneyards, especially as how they had to wreck the motor to accept the vehicles that were traded in.
I know it supposed to be a economic booster, but it always makes me wonder how much more was really at play.

Missed this post.

Yup..spot on..

Respectfully,
~ meathead

your cars are spying on you, sure- but not as much as your smart phones and tvs.

cash for clunkers was a tax funded # show to get all the old reliable foreign cars off the road and fund the transition back in to oversized American cars- but GM screwed the pooch a second time by flooding the market with junk SUVs and once again has lost... but now to foreign SUVs. I doubt it had anything to do with the push for more spying, but my 85 toyota still gets the same fuel economy as the wifes '15 yaris. I will say hers is a smoother ride... but we've made no improvements in fuel economy in 30 years. plus, mine is a sports car and a blast to drive in the snow... and hers is an econobox.

I hate what technology has become. it had so much potential...

originally posted by: Mike Stivic
a reply to: worldstarcountry

Three words...

Cash for clunkers..


Ymmv...

Respectfully,
~meathead

How do I give you all my stars?

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: Mike Stivic
a reply to: worldstarcountry

Three words...

Cash for clunkers..


Ymmv...

Respectfully,
~meathead

How do I give you all my stars?

It's a long involved process. It includes prayer rites and blood sacrifice..
How bout you just star hewhowaits ..
He didn't wait..he beat me to it!





Respectfully,
~ meathead

a reply to: Mike Stivic

Too true, he did!

Back around 2011 I think it was I was already seeing the Big 3 Auto talking about putting Google God into new production cars.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
I would just stick to buying second hand vehicles for cash. Much cheaper, even the late models. Then you can work with a Craigslist mechanic to remove the hardware that does the data transmissions. The first ad requesting service would generate a handful of motivated technicians with the know how to add it to their list of services.

Remove your automobile tracking hardware today! only 49.99 (select models only, prices may vary with year and brand...)

I'm far more worried about my laptop, cell phone and TV than I am my truck.

Just bought a new Sony TV. Pain in the ass won't let me use the voice control unless I log in with my Gmail account. It's ridiculous. Voice control is also ridiculous. I feel like if the govt. wants to they can easily pop into whatever they want, and the cell phone is probably the easiest and most reliable.

If your car knows more about you than your spouse you should get a divorce. Headline hyperbole, but I suppose that's the way it is now.

-----

I'm not huge on the vehicle black box thing. I think it's weird, I don't trust it, and it eeks me out. I suppose my truck may have a bunch of crap I don't know about (it's a few years old) but no GPS (because I think it's a huge waste of money).

What I'm wondering about is the legality of gathering this sort of data if someone buys a car used.

a reply to: Hewhowaits

Knowing some of the beautiful irreplaceable classics that were destroyed by that program is angering. But that only makes the ones still out there all the more of an uncommon site on the road while everything else just looks like a curvy 4 door car or tiny SUV. Everyday I can drive my Oldsmobiles is another middle finger to the Cash for Clunkers program.