I was the first person to ask my Honda dealer how to turn off data sharing. It didn't go well....

There are lots of reasons to want to shut off your car’s data collection. The Mozilla Foundation has called modern cars “surveillance machines on wheels” and ranked them worse than any other product category last year, with all 25 car brands they reviewed failing to offer adequate privacy protections.

With sensors, microphones, and cameras, cars collect way more data than needed to operate the vehicle. They also share and sell that information to third parties, something many Americans don’t realize they’re opting into when they buy these cars. Companies are quick to flaunt their privacy policies, but those amount to pages upon pages of legalese that leave even professionals stumped about what exactly car companies collect and where that information might go.

So what can they collect?

“Pretty much everything,” said Misha Rykov, a research associate at the Mozilla Foundation, who worked on the car-privacy report. “Sex-life data, biometric data, demographic, race, sexual orientation, gender — everything.” . . .

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍English
    19·
    6 months ago

    I’m in need of a new (to me) car soon and this is stopping me from even starting the shopping process. Now I know I can cross new Hondas off my list of consideration (I can’t stand to have notifications I can’t turn off). But that still leaves a lot research into information the car companies don’t want me to have and which I don’t want to have to do.

    Maybe I’ll buy an old Crown Vic. They drive forever and don’t look like any of the cars that local police currently use.

    • bigmclargehuge@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      6 months ago

      2010 to 2015 is my golden era. All the creature comforts like bluetooth, heated seats, etc, reliable, efficient engines (companies like Toyota and Honda still use most of the engines that were used in this era), but none of the big tech additions we’ve seen since.