Funny you should say that… besides driving old cars that don’t collect data, I also travel a lot by sailboat, and prefer to not even have an electrical system for simplicity/reliability. I like old diesels that also have no critical electronics- you can roll start them down a hill and they’ll run without any functioning electricals.
I put in my 2008... This site describes it as a hard drive on wheels. It can't upload the data but it still records it. Not quite sure what data is in there, or if it ever rolls off.
Yeah I found that hilarious as well. Fact is they have my VIN number and all that information, so I didn't really give them anything new except for my browser fingerprinting associated with my VIN.
Check what they actually say before taking that seriously. I put in my 2006 Honda CR-V and it said the same thing.
The way the report is organized can be very misleading. Here's the items it listed for my car and why they are misleading.
Under "Collect" it had:
• Identifiers. My car does not have the capability to collect any identifiers. Clicking on the card to learn more what it says is that Honda collects a whole bunch of identifiers. They are not saying that the vehicle collects them.
Honda may indeed have some of that information, but it is because I wrote it down on forms when I bought the car, or I entered it when I registered on their forums.
• Location. Same as "Identifiers". Honda collects this via mobile, web, or vehicle but they are not saying that my particular vehicle collects this.
• Synched Phones. My car has no phone interface. I could possibly get music to play from my phone through my car entertainment system by using my USB-C to headphone adaptor, plugging the headphone to cassette adaptor I have lying around somewhere into that, and insert the cassette end into the cassette slot. I've also got a headphone to FM transmitter somewhere that I could use.
• User Profiles. This is about vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, pedal position, engine speed, and similar. It it possible that such information is logged by the computers that control the car. In fact I'd expect some of that to be logged for diagnostic purposes. But it will only be accessible physically, probably through the ODB2 port, or maybe through some Honda-specific port that they make Honda dealers pay a bunch for.
Under "Services" it had:
• Sirius XM ONE-WAY. This is just wrong. 2007 was the first year Sirius XM was an option on CR-V.
So, what we've got then is a mix of items where they are really just reporting what the car company will keep if it gets a hold of it by any means, items that are actually collected by the vehicle, and items that are wrong.
How can you know that your car, with a SIM card inside, you do not own, do not collect personal data: the OEM can say "we do not", you can't prove the contrary except with complex actions, partially illegal as well.
I don’t want a car that is even capable of storing personal data… it has nothing to do with what it is used for.
That ship has sailed.
Funny you should say that… besides driving old cars that don’t collect data, I also travel a lot by sailboat, and prefer to not even have an electrical system for simplicity/reliability. I like old diesels that also have no critical electronics- you can roll start them down a hill and they’ll run without any functioning electricals.
Your old car radios don't store presets?
For an example of how radio presets can leak personal information see the Seinfeld episode "The Burning" [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burning_(Seinfeld)
I'm going to assume this pedantic response literally citing a Seinfeld episode with a numeric footnote is intended to satire HN discourse
Not if you buy older cars. Pre 2010 seems safe enough.
I put in my 2008... This site describes it as a hard drive on wheels. It can't upload the data but it still records it. Not quite sure what data is in there, or if it ever rolls off.
Hmmm I see they do this off a VIN… ironic they expect people worried about vehicle privacy to put their VIN into a random website.
Yeah I found that hilarious as well. Fact is they have my VIN number and all that information, so I didn't really give them anything new except for my browser fingerprinting associated with my VIN.
Which is something.
Check what they actually say before taking that seriously. I put in my 2006 Honda CR-V and it said the same thing.
The way the report is organized can be very misleading. Here's the items it listed for my car and why they are misleading.
Under "Collect" it had:
• Identifiers. My car does not have the capability to collect any identifiers. Clicking on the card to learn more what it says is that Honda collects a whole bunch of identifiers. They are not saying that the vehicle collects them.
Honda may indeed have some of that information, but it is because I wrote it down on forms when I bought the car, or I entered it when I registered on their forums.
• Location. Same as "Identifiers". Honda collects this via mobile, web, or vehicle but they are not saying that my particular vehicle collects this.
• Synched Phones. My car has no phone interface. I could possibly get music to play from my phone through my car entertainment system by using my USB-C to headphone adaptor, plugging the headphone to cassette adaptor I have lying around somewhere into that, and insert the cassette end into the cassette slot. I've also got a headphone to FM transmitter somewhere that I could use.
• User Profiles. This is about vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, pedal position, engine speed, and similar. It it possible that such information is logged by the computers that control the car. In fact I'd expect some of that to be logged for diagnostic purposes. But it will only be accessible physically, probably through the ODB2 port, or maybe through some Honda-specific port that they make Honda dealers pay a bunch for.
Under "Services" it had:
• Sirius XM ONE-WAY. This is just wrong. 2007 was the first year Sirius XM was an option on CR-V.
So, what we've got then is a mix of items where they are really just reporting what the car company will keep if it gets a hold of it by any means, items that are actually collected by the vehicle, and items that are wrong.
The example report is too small to be useful.
The sole possible privacy are mandatory FLOSS and open hardware.
Per the website, there's a GDPR mandate to allow the deletion of personal data.
How can you know that your car, with a SIM card inside, you do not own, do not collect personal data: the OEM can say "we do not", you can't prove the contrary except with complex actions, partially illegal as well.