this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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I don't know anything about cars.

Now that we have established that cars seriously undermine our privacy (look at the flurry of posts in this community in the last few hours), what can we do about it?

From a networking POV, if you remove the ability to connect to the Internet, it doesn't matter what the car is recording as long as you can ensure there is no physical tampering. Depending on who you are, this is a good idea, and doable for the most part (very few people have the technical knowledge to pull out the right chip from a car).

So, how do we achieve this? I implore the community to invite mechanical/car engineers who can help us on this matter, and to form methods to prevent vehicles from accessing the Internet without express consent from the user.

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The manufacturer that i work for has esims built into every vehicle they build that cannot be removed without bricking the vehicle. I feel like this is pretty much industry standard at this point. They used to have a removable sim, but there was an esim along side that so you could not completely disconnect.

Edit: added words

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then block the signal with a Faraday Cage.

I see I'm getting downvoted for my comments about this, but the vehicle will not fail due to a lack of internet connection. Otherwise your vehicle would brick itself anytime you drive through a tunnel.

Go ahead, look it up. It's about as simple as wrapping the cellular device with metal screen.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I like driving my car wrapped in tinfoil

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I never suggested any such thing. I mean only to wrap the cellular module in metal screen, not the entire vehicle.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jesus. Any idea how old a car I'd have to buy to be realtively certain it wasn't phoning home?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A lot of cars weren't connected until 2007-2010 unless they were luxurymodels or had OnStar or LoJack.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Really wish I had the money to start a car company

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

What car manufacturer is this?