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In China, Your Car Could Be Talking To the Government (apnews.com) 73

schwit1 shares a report: More than 200 manufacturers, including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi and U.S.-listed electric vehicle start-up NIO, transmit position information and dozens of other data points to government-backed monitoring centers, The Associated Press has found. Generally, it happens without car owners' knowledge. The automakers say they are merely complying with local laws, which apply only to alternative energy vehicles. Chinese officials say the data is used for analytics to improve public safety, facilitate industrial development and infrastructure planning, and to prevent fraud in subsidy programs.

But other countries that are major markets for electronic vehicles -- the United States, Japan, across Europe -- do not collect this kind of real-time data. And critics say the information collected in China is beyond what is needed to meet the country's stated goals. It could be used not only to undermine foreign carmakers' competitive position, but also for surveillance -- particularly in China, where there are few protections on personal privacy. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China has unleashed a war on dissent, marshalling big data and artificial intelligence to create a more perfect kind of policing, capable of predicting and eliminating perceived threats to the stability of the ruling Communist Party.

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In China, Your Car Could Be Talking To the Government

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  • by sjbe ( 173966 )

    It WILL be used not only to undermine foreign carmakers' competitive position, but also for surveillance

    Fixed that for you.

    • It WILL be used not only to undermine foreign carmakers' competitive position, but also for surveillance

      Fixed that for you.

      You forgot to add that your social media score will be "adjusted" if you speed, block traffic, make illegal turns, or drive to "certain areas" the government doesn't approve of.

      I am pretty sure the could/will should be changed to "is".

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ok (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Friday November 30, 2018 @10:28AM (#57725590) Journal

    Every day, Slashdot admins shocked to discover that China is a dictatorship.

    A real one, not an "OMG, my political opponents won something so oh noes" one.

    • Slashdot admins? Really? They are shocked?

      They don't just aggregate stories that are news for nerds, stuff that matters?

      Where are these posts you speak about where admins express their shock?

      Posted by a very shocked msmash on Friday November 30, 2018 @09:10AM from the meanwhile-in-China dept

  • by Parker Lewis ( 999165 ) on Friday November 30, 2018 @10:29AM (#57725596)
    In USA, Your Card IS Talking To the Government: https://www.forbes.com/sites/t... [forbes.com]
    • Of course, s/card/car/
    • In USA, Your Card IS Talking To the Government: https://www.forbes.com/sites/t... [forbes.com]

      It says over and over in that article that they weren't spying, they had to get a warrant. In one case, it was a rental car. Remember, when you rent a car, it isn't your car.

  • In reality (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday November 30, 2018 @10:37AM (#57725644) Homepage Journal

    In reality, if your vehicle can be reporting on you, the only safe assumption is that it is doing so. It doesn't matter what country you live in, except that some countries may be more likely to abuse the information. Your automaker's EULA certainly gives them the right to sell that data to anyone they like. It might require a token attempt at anonymization, but we all know that can be reversed if you have enough data.

  • "...United States, Japan, across Europe -- do not collect this kind of real-time data."

    It's kinda cute that you believe that.
    signed: The NSA

    • Yeah. Drove around the UK a few months ago, rental car had a feature where it displayed the speed limit at all times. It wasn't always right, but it did have this really creepy feature where it knew where the speed limit dropped around obviously-temporary roadwork. No way that was programmed into the nav system.
    • Nobody has access to whatever the NSA collects except the military, and they don't do law enforcement.

      Nobody knows what the NSA records, that includes you and me.

      Kinda "cute" that you believe you have knowledge of secret activities beyond merely that secret activities might be happening.

      And it is unlikely they collect that shit from cars in the US, it doesn't have any military value. If a war breaks out, they can simply start collecting it. You really do not appreciate the information glut that they likely

  • In the UK... (Score:5, Informative)

    by paulhar ( 652995 ) on Friday November 30, 2018 @11:02AM (#57725808)

    > But other countries that are major markets for electronic vehicles -- the United States, Japan, across Europe -- do not collect this kind of real-time data.

    Sure they do.

    ANPR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    Cell site locality/triangulation from the built-in-car phone.

    And before anyone says 'real-time', with my aluminium foil hat correctly fitted, Snowdon showed that things are collected...

  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday November 30, 2018 @11:36AM (#57725960)

    On the other hand, my insurance company OBD dongle and my RFID toll pass can't keep their yaps shut.

  • I wonder if my car talks to the Mazda dealer. I drove past the dealership going to another place, and when I got back home there was an email saying my car could be overdue for service. This isn't the first time. Am I paranoid?
  • The future is now (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Friday November 30, 2018 @01:22PM (#57726754) Journal

    And the future...is going to be some kind of warped Black Mirror episode with Bryce Dallas Howard, where the government watches all you do, then shuts off your access to loans and whatnot if you don't kowtow and your communist social score drops too low.

  • If you have a vehicle that has wireless connectivity, it is 100% certain that it's 'phoning home' to either the manufacturer or the government. Guaranteed. Even if, somehow, your car isn't, your gods-be-damned smartphone is reporting your position anyway. Hell, between the two, when you're driving, it's likely providing differential GPS to whoever is collecting the data on you, thus improving the accuracy practically down to mere centimeters.

    Does this bother you? It should.
    o Locate, disconnect, and dumm
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.

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