Posted on 12/26/2023 8:24:06 AM PST by Red Badger
Your car may be smarter than you realize, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently ruled that it is not a violation of privacy for a car to store text and call data from your cell phone automatically.
While modern convenience often comes with an associated cost in terms of sacrificed privacy, a class-action lawsuit brought against five major car manufacturers—Ford, General Motors, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen—asserted that under the Washington State Privacy Act drivers’ rights had been violated due to their unawareness of what they were signing away when connecting their smartphones to their cars.
“If text messages or call logs are deleted from a cellphone, the vehicle nevertheless retains the communications on the vehicle’s on-board memory, even after the cellphone is disconnected. Vehicle owners cannot access or delete their personal information once it has been stored,” the court said of the plaintiffs’ complaint.
Ford argued in its defense that drivers of their vehicles had given “implied consent” for the storage of personal data and provided a “factory reset” procedure on its website to wipe the memory board of all stored data.
Ford was also able to prove that it did not have access nor store any text or call data from customers’ vehicles.
Thus, the privacy concern from the plaintiffs rested solely with Berla, a third-party data retrieval company which produces hardware and software marketed to law enforcement clients, allowing them to extract stored phone data from connected vehicles.
On its own website, Berla stated that by using its products, “having access to a suspect’s connected vehicle is the next best thing behind having the actual phone itself.”
The 9th Circuit found in favor of Ford and other car manufacturers because the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate an actual injury resulting from alleged breach of privacy, such proof is required under law for damages.
Nevertheless, consumer advocates remain highly concerned with potential privacy risks posed by vehicle technology.
A recent report conducted by Mozilla News’ *Privacy Not Included team called modern cars “the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.”
After looking into 25 car brands, they concluded that “Every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.”
While police must still comply with due process procedures when seeking access to such data via court order, these findings are certainly cause for alarm.
“They 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.”
The report revealed an alarming statistic: 84% of the car brands reviewed shared or sold user data.
My car (German) stores calls...don’t know about texts. But IIRC I can turn off that function. But my car has about 10,000 different options so I’m not sure...I’ve only figured out about 1% of its functions.
Germans loved record keeping...................
FRacebookers arrive to complain about privacy invasion while Facebook tracks them here in 3,2,1…
“ANYTIME”
Only with a court order.
Unless you are doing something illegal, what do you have to worry about? /s
I must be missing something. My vehicles are 12 and 15 years old, and the only way I can “connect“ my phone to them is to plug a cable from the earphone jack into the “AUX“ jack of the radio/CD to play music.
If I need to make a call or send a text while I’m in the car, I use the phone.
Why in the world would I use my car to make calls or send texts? What’s next, built-in AI to compose the message for me?
Smart cars and smart devices are why I ALWAYS use stolen cars and burner phones that are never used near my familiar haunts as I commit my nefarious and criminal deeds.
“Why in the world would I use my car to make calls or send texts? “
Hands-free.
Snowden warned us—there is no real “off” switch.
It just makes folks feel like they are doing something.
If you want privacy talk to your dog.
Outside—out of range of any Wifi.
Then you only need to worry about satellite monitoring.
;-)
“ANYTIME”
Only with a court order.
Bwahahahahahahah! With DemocRATZ in charge, they don’t need no stinkin’ courts.
Under New York State law you cannot use a hand-held mobile telephone or portable electronic device while you drive. Illegal activity includes holding a portable electronic device and
talking on a handheld mobile telephone
composing, sending, reading, accessing, browsing, transmitting, saving, or retrieving electronic data such as e-mail, text messages, or webpages
But a bit farther down in the article...
The report revealed an alarming statistic: 84% of the car brands reviewed shared or sold user data.
Just HOW do you sell what you don't have access to?
Let's get President Trump's take on "due process"
yet another reason older cars are better ...
I have an iPhone with a set of EarPods that include the ability to make and receive phone calls without touching the phone itself, which typically lives in my shirt pocket. That is the very definition of “hands-free“.
I have yet to encounter a text message exchange which is so mission critical that it can’t wait until I get to a rest area. In a true emergency I can pull over to the shoulder and probably should anyway so I can concentrate.
I still don’t get why it’s necessary for the call or text message to be routed through the vehicle. It’s the phone making the call or sending the text. Or are you telling me that I have to get a mobile wireless account for my car?
My 57 Bel Air has a glitch in its email system.
My cars are retarded. They don’t even know what emails are; they’re too old.
Anyone assigned to monitor *my* calls would be so bored that he/she would commit suicide.
Hopefully they’re acquainted with color TV.
Things like this are why my friend who makes six figures a year and drives a 1998 Jeep. He has a second job at an auto parts store so he can get a discount on parts to keep the thing running.
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