Posted on 09/19/2024 5:34:27 AM PDT by george76
Governments are pushing the public to switch to smart vehicles to reduce fossil fuel consumption, but there is also a second motive – surveillance.
This September, Ford filed a new patent to eavesdrop on riders. They plan to share this information with third-parties to personalize the advertisements riders hear. Ford will also take the driver’s destination into consideration to determine location-specific advertisements and suggestions. The technology will factor in the weather, traffic, and all external sensors to fine tune when and what to market to passengers.
Advertisements are perhaps the least ominous use of voice data based on the plans that these car manufacturers have. Car insurance rates in the United States spiked 26% in the past year, which is partly due to car manufacturers sharing ride data with insurance companies. Even older cars with basic features like OnStar have tracking devices that report your driving behavior to the manufacturers who share your data with insurance companies and, ultimately, the government. LexisNexis, which tracks drivers’ behaviors and compiles risk profiles, has been sharing individual data with General Motors, who passes that information along to the insurance companies. General Motors.
One driver demanded that LexisNexis send him his personal report, which was a 258-page document containing every trip he or his wife took in his vehicle over a six-month period. LexisNexis said that this data will be used “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage.” They even reported small issues such as hard breaking and rapid acceleration, according to the report. “I don’t know the definition of hard brake. My passenger’s head isn’t hitting the dash,” an unnamed Cadillac driver enrolled in the OnStar Smart Driver subscription service told reporters.
“Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations in them. Cars have cameras that face inward and outward,” a researcher with Mozilla Foundation told the Los Angeles Times. In fact, 19 automakers in 2023 admitted that they have the ability to sell your personal data without notice. Law enforcement may subpoena these records as well.
Ford claims that the patent was submitted, but they do not necessarily plan to use the technology. “Submitting patent applications is a normal part of any strong business as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a robust portfolio of intellectual property. The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans. No matter what the patent application outlines, we will always put the customer first in the decision-making behind the development and marketing of new products and services,” Ford said in a statement released to MotorTrend.
Now, the US Department of Transportation is permitted to mandate that certain manufacturers provide them with vehicle data. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Edward Markey of Massachusetts testified that all vehicles in the United States with a GPS or emergency call system are collecting travel data that car manufacturers have remote access to via the computer chips. The computer chips are compiling data on vehicle speed, movement, travel, and even using exterior sensors and cameras to record the vehicle’s location.
All of this violates the Fourth Amendment which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause. These car manufacturers are surpassing what anyone would consider a reasonable expectation of privacy. Governments, third-party advertisement companies, and insurance companies all have warrantless access to personal data, and drivers are largely unaware they are being spied on. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits the government to have backdoor access to this data.
The aforementioned senators’ concerns fell on deaf ears at the Federal Trade Commission. The Department of Transportation clearly is not listed within the US Constitution. People are already experiencing stiff consequences from autos sharing data with the sharp uptick in insurance rates. Our freedom of movement is under attack. Our data has become more valuable than gold. The legal implications fall under a grey area as the Founding Fathers never expected their newly created government to turn against their own citizens.
Some savvy lawyer will have a field day on this eventually. It is clearly a violation of the constitution and the reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s vehicle is long standing precedent.
I’ve owned 8 fords, 6 I bought new. I will never buy another one.
I took my 2017 Expedition in for a water pump replacement. $1500. The truck has four pages of features I’ll never use. It’s so complex that I don’t want to change something as simple as a water pump. Changing the transmission filter cost $750. There’s no dip stick so you have to capture the fluid, measure it, and put back in the same amount. Ridiculous. Oh, and it has all kinds of satellite enabled features. Why? It has an “infotainment” system. I want to go from one place to another. I don’t need or want entertainment and if I did, I’m sure my phone could provide it. Vehicles are so out of touch with what I, the market, want it’s ridiculous. OH, I paid $17000 for something that cost five times that when new. Someone took one hell of a beating on it. When the first big item fails, I’ll junk it.
I looked at a Mavrick. The only model with a naturally aspirated engine is a hybrid. I’m not buying anything with a lithium battery. It has three cooling systems, the engine, the battery controller and the battery. That’s three times the failure rate. And, again, I can’t work on it.
My next truck will be at least a twenty-year-old model, and I’ll rebuild whatever it needs. I’ll spring for a new interior.
This is why I like my fleet of 25+ year old vehicles. They’re not full of electronic garbage, and the throttle and steering linkages are mechanical.
Sorry, wrong. You have no privacy. All newer vehicles spy on you. If your phone is connected to your vehicle for the convenience of handsfree driving, it’s recorded. Where you go, how fast you go, and all around driving habits are recorded. Anything you say in your vehicle may be recorded. Most new vehicles have a wi-fi antenna for transmission purposes.
I’ll ride a mule first...
“This is why I like my fleet of 25+ year old vehicles. They’re not full of electronic garbage, and the throttle and steering linkages are mechanical.”
Same here. The foolish rich who like to show off their new shiny status toys can go right ahead. In the end the joke is on them.
I am amazed at the number of people who have given up their information willingly just to buy a product online and such. I don’t even give out my phone number at stores when they ask.
We are being track everywhere we go. License plate readers, cell phones, hundreds of cameras between your house and any destination, every purchase you make using a card, etc... Our ancestors lived in an open country where you could come and go as you please and the genie is out of the bottle and will never be put back in.
The dumbing down of our country is coming home to roost.
Never buy a Ford.
So much for front and back seat privacy.
My 2008 Nissan Frontier and 2016 F150 should outlast me. I’m counting on it. If I have to rebuild a motor etc., fine. No new trucks for me.
Google has been doing this for years, just pay them to use their patent.
This really sucks, and obviously it’s been going on for a longer time (note the OnStar reference) than most of us imagine.
But, it could have its benefits if it could be enabled or disabled (mostly disabled, haha), and the status made obvious by an obvious warning when you’re traveling in an unfamiliar location.
Mostly, though, this is sci-fi level dystopian.
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HOW MANY ADS TELL US NOT TO “DRIVE DISTRACTED”???
I LOVE MY OLD IRON
Like Crows the species has been brainwashed into collecting and showing off new “shiny stuff” to attract mates and societal display status. They can’t live without them because the TV and internet told them they can’t live without them. They will do anything including trample over each other to be the first to own new shiny stuff. Their subconscious is very easily manipulated.
Base model Gladiator, 2022 is what I got.
And Thankfully, Stellantis was shipping some of them without the Telematics module, so I guess they programmed all the trucks to be able to operate without the module.
I yanked the anntenae wire, and it complained about lack of connectivity, but was still transmitting Data to Stellantis. Yanked the Telematics module and it operates as if I didn’t but it’s not sending any data anymore. That combined with a Chip that allows me to shut off all the stupid nanny features like Auto park and stop start, and it’s about the same as my older cars
They do this because it is an extra revenue stream, and they haven’t been called out on it to the point where it hurts the wallet.
And just like that, prices on used cars just skyrocketed.
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