Your New Truck is Spying on You

Privacy and security are serious and legitimate concerns that extend to ALL smart consumer electronics items (Vehicles, Tvs, cell phones, DVD players, smart appliances,smart electrical outlets, smart doorbells, etc).

Manufacturers are very interested in collecting your personal data for marketing and other purposes. Unfortunately most do not put much effort into providing adequate security features and software to allow you to prevent collection of personal information or even to prevent hackers from accessing the system and spying on you.

Don't believe it? Do a search on 'Smart Electronics Privacy' and see what comes up.

Here is but one of many links you will find.

People say they care about privacy but they continue to buy devices that can spy on them


Caveat emptor! You should be concerned. This is real.

We should all be communicating our concerns to our Congress people and Senators. They are currently contemplating laws to help protect electronic data personal privacy but the manufacturer lobbyists are getting their ears and that is not necessarily in your best interests.

I have expressed my concerns to my Congressperson. I hope you do too.
 
Most of us "consent" to the use of our personal/private information when we sign up for service. We agree to a service contract that allows the manufacturer to collect data and share it with companies that they feel we would be interested in (really any company that will purchase the data). Most privacy agreements are the misnomers, rather, agreements to waive our privacy.

The manufacturers won't be liable or on the hook for anything because we consented when we downloaded the app.

It doesn't really matter though, because as long as we don't do anything wrong, there isn't anything to worry about.
 
"...as long as we don't do anything wrong, there isn't anything to worry about."

au contraire, hackers have been targeting so-called smart devices for years! They want your personal information so they can exploit it. Identity theft is but one serious risk.

Perhaps you do not care about some random person (hacker), probably with nefarious intent, listening in on your conversations, knowing when you come and go, knowing where you go, the names and addresses of all your friends and relatives, what financial institutions you bank at and whatever else they can glean from listening to your conversations, watching you from the smart cams in your TV, phone, Car etc, but I and a lot of other people do care and are very concerned about it.

Manufacturers also want your personal data so they can learn your habits and what activities you engage in which allows them to target ads at you or to sell that information to other companies that want to use that data.

Yes, it really does matter to a lot of us but too many other folks do not understand and/or simply the risks.


These are all part of the reasons why Congress is finally getting serious about crafting Federal privacy bills in 2020 that aim to regulate companies’ collection and/or use of people’s personal information.

Until that happens, Caveat emptor!

P.S. Although I am not an expert in this area, without going into any details, my Aerospace experience on a couple of projects along with friends who are experts in some of the software and hardware technology gives me a reasonable understanding of the technologies and capabilities as well as the the risks to our personal data.
.
 
Facetious - lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous: a facetious person.

Also, as a francophone, it's au contraire, amigo :)
 
Why I live ...almost... off the grid.
Keep my truck in a Faraday bag.
And wear an aluminum foil hat when driving.
:ninja:

It is an issue.
Fortunately, Ford Sync 2 is no longer active or maintained by Ford.

The wife's car...it knows and tracks everything and is probably watching porn on the internet when we drive. :oops:
 
I want the program that will allow me to line out (line out) sentences and paragraphs that I don't agree with. If they can write it in, I can write it out. Fair is fair after all.
 
Thanks for sharing Craig! I was aware of that site, and a few others.

Just imagine, if 30 years ago the bureaucrats wanted to implant GPS units under the skin of citizens...well they didn't have to, everyone volunteered to buy cell phones with their own cash and carry them as an additional body limb.

If one considers data security a truly significant issue/threat, the only real way to prevent one's data from falling into the wrong hands is simply not to own any consumer products with digital chips installed and/or connect to the internet. And even that will not stop your data from falling into the wrong hands via third party breach.

Frankly, there are many extremely smart people on the dark side of the digital realm who will always be one, perhaps many, steps ahead of those trying to keep data secure.

I know a person who is extremely gifted at physics and math (had highly specialized PhDs in both at 18 from a very prestigious university) who has told me if such a person wants access to any chip, computer, storage device that is connected to the internet, they will eventually access it. Fortunately, my acquaintance wears a white hat; and a fantastic adventure moto rider. With little doubt, there are others like this person who may not be honest.
 
Advmoto18 said:
I know a person who is extremely gifted at physics and math (had highly specialized PhDs in both at 18 from a very prestigious university) who has told me if such a person wants access to any chip, computer, storage device that is connected to the internet, they will eventually access it. Fortunately, my acquaintance wears a white hat; and a fantastic adventure moto rider. With little doubt, there are others like this person who may not be honest.
Click to expand...
Ah, modern problems! Whatchgonnadoaboutit? Live with it I suppose. I do not plan to move into an off the grid cave any time soon.
 
No cave, just a small shrimping village surrounded by 20+ miles of National Forest and National Wildlife Refuges. It's, going to be many more years, if not decades before high speed internet (we don't even have DSL) reaches us. Unless 5G issues are fixed in the shorter term.

I don't worry about it at all. BUT, I do take precautions.

My data was stolen in the massive DoD OPM breach a few of years ago. DoD stepped up and provides identity monitoring for the millions of us whose data was compromised.

Monitoring your identity records on a regular basis is the first step. And really all any of us can do at this time. Sort of like closing the barn door after all the animals have high tailed it.
 
Make sure you're not broadcasting your SSID. Disabling the SSID broadcast should be done when you change the password. Even though someone with a $20 gadget can see it. But most folks with their smartphone or computer will not see it let alone even care.
 
Advmoto18 said:
No cave, just a small shrimping village surrounded by 20+ miles of National Forest and National Wildlife Refuges. It's, going to be many more years, if not decades before high speed internet (we don't even have DSL) reaches us. Unless 5G issues are fixed in the shorter term.
Click to expand...
Are you living at one of the picnic table pullouts in Four Hole Swamp? :p

Paul
 
I have a neighbor who recently retired from the FBI.
His specialty was tracking people through Social Media and electronic devices.

He told me his job has never been easier...
 
ski3pin said:
...............what a shame to wake up one morning and realize, "My truck just emptied my bank account and went to Vegas."
Click to expand...
My 2015 Dodge Caravan emptied my bank account....but that's another story.........
 
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