215
Can we prevent cars from sending data to servers if we remove their antennae? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
101 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I don't know anything about cars.

Now that we have established that cars seriously undermine our privacy (look at the flurry of posts in this community in the last few hours), what can we do about it?

From a networking POV, if you remove the ability to connect to the Internet, it doesn't matter what the car is recording as long as you can ensure there is no physical tampering. Depending on who you are, this is a good idea, and doable for the most part (very few people have the technical knowledge to pull out the right chip from a car).

So, how do we achieve this? I implore the community to invite mechanical/car engineers who can help us on this matter, and to form methods to prevent vehicles from accessing the Internet without express consent from the user.

Thanks!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 16 points 3 years ago (6 children)

Or the car just doesn't start one day because it hasn't connected to its server in a month, forcing you to go to the dealer to fix it. Why do you so fervently believe a manufacturer wouldn't resort to tactics like this that they already employ for other systems? It's naive to think that manufacturers would never remotely disable a car in full or in part because it has been modified without authorization. If it profits them, they physically can, and no regulation prevents it, they will. Right to repair is a nice movement, that I fully support, but it's very very far from a universal right anywhere.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Or the car just doesn’t start one day because it hasn’t connected to its server in a month, forcing you >to go to the dealer to fix it.

    You are exaggerating, a manufacturer can't do that. The simple reason is that lots of people live (or spend part of the year) in places where the only internet access is through satellite, this is specially true in big countries. The most probable thing they do is to save all the data until there is internet connection available to send it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    You seem to be confused about the difference between can and will. I don't believe every or even most manufacturers would actually do this, but pretending that they cannot do it (or something like it) purely due to market pressure is naive.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I understand the difference but they never are going to do that for the same reason that they have never and they never will block your phone if its not connected to the internet, there are personal security reasons, they cannot leave you with an unusable phone or car. Even people who dont give a fuck about privacy wouldn't accept something like that, they would go bankrupt.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •