It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy
“[Modern cars] can collect super intimate information about you – from your medical information, your genetic information, to your “sex life” (seriously), to how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car – in huge quantities. They then use it to invent more data about you through “inferences” about things like your intelligence, abilities, and interests.”
One can make-do without a cell phone, or at least without a smart phone, but its very hard to function in the USA w/o a car. Folks who are concerned about privacy pretty much will have to drive the older cars maybe.
Smart TV’s do the same thing… I really don’t care though, I just smile and wave at the camera and put on a show… Not my fault if they want to gouge their eyes out afterwards…
However, I would like someone to explain how my car’s telematics system could access my medical records (hint: it can’t, due to HIPAA regs), or my genetic information. My thought is that this article is just one very small step in validity above the usual click-bait.
Yes, the vehicle’s telematics system can clearly determine my driving habits/patterns as well as what music and other Sirius/XM programming to which I listen.
I think that you are trying to rationalize your affinity for vehicles that are older–and less safe, less economical, and less reliable–than newer vehicles.
I did see that article before George posted it, and my first–and only–thought on the topic was… Whoever wants to know about the music to which I listen is welcome to it. As to info on my driving habits/patterns, anyone looking at that info is going to be extremely bored.
I don’t drive cars with built-in telemetry, driver data recording, or remote-communication features. My ideal level of technology would be found in a mid-1990’s model, and after the early 2000’s, it’s downhill fast.
With all due respect, have you pondered the point that, as the years pass, the pool of those vehicles is going to shrink continually, and within not very many years that pool will consist of nothing that is still driveable? What do you plan to do at that point?
Every day that becomes more and more difficult. You can’t park in for-pay local parking spots without a smart phone in my county.
People complain about “privacy” but connect their lives to their smart phones, cars and home… Hello Alexa play Hendrix…Siri where can I get a coffee nearby, and then we connect our phones to our cars and talk to our cars!
Yup! But, I am willing to wager at least the price of a cup of coffee that most people who complain about other types of invasion of privacy aren’t aware that their Smartphone tracks their travels.
A couple of months ago, I visited a new mega-mall in Northern NJ that is an entertainment destination, as well as a shopping venue. When it came time to leave, I had to install their app on my phone in order to pay for parking at the kiosk (No human attendants). I don’t plan to return to that mall, so once I got home I immediately deleted that app from my phone.
Well, I’m 43 years old right now. Based upon how old my father and grandfather were when they died, I assume that I have another 37 years left to drive. Even today, there are still cars from the 1970’s and early 1980’s offered for sale from time to time. I assume that suitable vehicles to meet my needs will remain in circulation until I am too old and tired to work on cars any longer.
I heard that on the radio but they never actually explained the sex life part. True much information is being collected from multiple sources even when you buy something. The problem is not necessarily the collection of the information but the sharing and selling and storing of it. So it is time for a whole new set of strict data privacy laws to cover this stuff. Then there are the door bell cameras and other information stored by who knows who through Amazon.
