Mozilla released their studies, and I’m seeing a growing number of posts on the Internet about cars and the privacy nightmare they entail. I remember how this issue wasn’t talked about earlier because “just buy an older car” was still prevalent. I’m so happy that people are taking notice. Thank you to this community and Mozilla for the work they are putting in!

  • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    121
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I’m basically in the position that I’m driving a car from 1999, and when it finally dies, I’ll either be resigned to riding the bus or finding another aged used car without all this absolute bullshit in it.

    Maybe it really is time for the Free Open Source Vehicle.

    • 50MYT@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      1 year ago

      You don’t need a very old car, just one that is old enough the cellular network doesn’t work any more.

      Some vehicles were made for 3g, and can’t go to 4g for example.

      • BruceLee@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        2g antenna sare still up and running. Every new generation is add on top of the previous like a new layer of the network. And telemetry can be collected through older gen network.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe it really is time for the Free Open Source Vehicle.

      Sure, but what it is for certain time for is making this sort of spying and tracking illegal. If I as a private citizen tracked someone this much, it would be considered stalking, which is a criminal offense.

    • edric@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Getting a base model can somewhat help too. My 2020 car only has carplay. No built in navigation or any remote or homing tech (that I know of). It’s the higher trims that get all the fancy tech “features”.

      • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh my god, no. No, no, no.

        Just because they aren’t making those features available to you doesn’t mean they aren’t still tracking all that stuff.

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        I mean sort of. What is “base” has also changed.

        Try finding an EV that doesn’t have automatic windows but has old school manual rollup/rolldown windows. You can’t, even though its more environmentally friendly.

      • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        That community completely ignores reality for millions billions of people that absolutely need a car to live a life in the thousands of cities that don’t have adequate public transportation and 100% of the rural areas in the world.

        • BruceLee@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          They are fighting for better transportations for them so, I don’t think they ignore them. They are very aware of them and very keen on improving their lives conditions.

        • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Multiple billions no. There’s 1.4 billion cars after a casual google, and considering how many people have cars as a convenience or multiple cars I think it might be closer to a single billion people need cars.

    • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s kinda extreme lol but I hope that companies start selling non smart cars. I don’t want my car to be smart , I want my car to take me to point A and B , and be able to fix it myself.

    • metaStatic@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ll probably just fix up my GS500 and run that until petrol is outlawed. Possibly the last fully mechanical motor vehicle ever sold.

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        My city doesn’t even have bus fare. It’s not like they’re grabbing my biometrics when I step in. They’re not trying to identify me when I walk on.

        You just walk on, wait, then walk off.

        It may not be the most private way of transport but it’s not actively collecting data on you, which is what this is about.

        • hackris@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          May I ask which city (or at least country)? The no bus fares part is intriguing :)

          • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            US, Northwest. The fares only accounted for about 2% of the total budget for transit, and the city was looking into upgrading their fare-collector devices because the ones they had were getting really old and starting to fail. After they did the math, they realized it would cost them more to get the new fare-collectors bought and installed than it would to… just get rid of the fare collectors altogether. It was simply going to cost so much money that they would have had to increase fares to pay for it, and so they just said “screw it” and dropped fares entirely.