Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show (wired.com) 25
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Automakers are increasingly pushing consumers to accept monthly and annual fees to unlock preinstalled safety and performance features, from hands-free driving systems and heated seats to cameras that can automatically record accident situations. But the additional levels of internet connectivity this subscription model requires can increase drivers' exposure to government surveillance and the likelihood of being caught up in police investigations. A cache of more than two dozen police records recently reviewed by WIRED show US law enforcement agencies regularly trained on how to take advantage of "connected cars," with subscription-based features drastically increasing the amount of data that can be accessed during investigations. The records make clear that law enforcement's knowledge of the surveillance far exceeds that of the public and reveal how corporate policies and technologies -- not the law -- determine driver privacy.
"Each manufacturer has their whole protocol on how the operating system in the vehicle utilizes telematics, mobile Wi-Fi, et cetera," one law enforcement officer noted in a presentation prepared by the California State Highway Patrol (CHP) and reviewed by WIRED. The presentation, while undated, contains statistics on connected cars for the year 2024. "If the vehicle has an active subscription," they add, "it does create more data." The CHP presentation, obtained by government transparency nonprofit Property of the People via a public records request, trains police on how to acquire data based on a variety of hypothetical scenarios, each describing how vehicle data can be acquired based on the year, make, and model of a vehicle. The presentation acknowledges that access to data can ultimately be limited due to choices made by not only vehicle manufacturers but the internet service providers on which connected devices rely.
One document notes, for instance, that when a General Motors vehicle is equipped with an active OnStar subscription, it will transmit data -- revealing its location -- roughly twice as often as a Ford vehicle. Different ISPs appear to have not only different capabilities but policies when it comes to responding to government requests for information. Police may be able to rely on AT&T to help identify certain vehicles based on connected devices active in the car but lack the ability to do so when the device relies on a T-Mobile or Verizon network instead. [...] Nearly all subscription-based car features rely on devices that come preinstalled in a vehicle, with a cellular connection necessary only to enable the automaker's recurring-revenue scheme. The ability of car companies to charge users to activate some features is effectively the only reason the car's systems need to communicate with cell towers. The police documents note that companies often hook customers into adopting the services through free trial offers, and in some cases the devices are communicating with cell towers even when users decline to subscribe.
"Each manufacturer has their whole protocol on how the operating system in the vehicle utilizes telematics, mobile Wi-Fi, et cetera," one law enforcement officer noted in a presentation prepared by the California State Highway Patrol (CHP) and reviewed by WIRED. The presentation, while undated, contains statistics on connected cars for the year 2024. "If the vehicle has an active subscription," they add, "it does create more data." The CHP presentation, obtained by government transparency nonprofit Property of the People via a public records request, trains police on how to acquire data based on a variety of hypothetical scenarios, each describing how vehicle data can be acquired based on the year, make, and model of a vehicle. The presentation acknowledges that access to data can ultimately be limited due to choices made by not only vehicle manufacturers but the internet service providers on which connected devices rely.
One document notes, for instance, that when a General Motors vehicle is equipped with an active OnStar subscription, it will transmit data -- revealing its location -- roughly twice as often as a Ford vehicle. Different ISPs appear to have not only different capabilities but policies when it comes to responding to government requests for information. Police may be able to rely on AT&T to help identify certain vehicles based on connected devices active in the car but lack the ability to do so when the device relies on a T-Mobile or Verizon network instead. [...] Nearly all subscription-based car features rely on devices that come preinstalled in a vehicle, with a cellular connection necessary only to enable the automaker's recurring-revenue scheme. The ability of car companies to charge users to activate some features is effectively the only reason the car's systems need to communicate with cell towers. The police documents note that companies often hook customers into adopting the services through free trial offers, and in some cases the devices are communicating with cell towers even when users decline to subscribe.
Has anyone figured out... (Score:4, Interesting)
...how to rip out or physically disable OnStar in vehicles that carry it? It continues to collect data even when you don't have a subscription.
I'm happily driving a 30 year old truck and a newer passenger car that does not have any outside connections or built in cellular modem. I'm afraid it'll be harder to find something like that as time goes on.
Re: (Score:1)
There are places that offer the removal of cellular connectivity on vehicles as a service. I recall this being kind of a thing for celebrities and politicians that fear being tracked by crazy people and terrorists. (Did I just repeat myself?)
I don't know what such services would cost, obviously it varies with the vehicle. Such a task is not likely something easily taken on as a DIY project as these devices can be buried deep and it would take some expertise to know where all the parts are, remove them wi
Re: (Score:2)
Jammers are quite illegal to use, in some places also to possess, and not very hard to detect when used. Locating one is somewhat resource intensive, but they can usually be detected and potentially geolocated from hundreds or thousands of meters away (a low level of output power is hard to calibrate and local RF environments vary a lot, so they err on the side of using more power than is usually needed): https://insidegnss.com/detecti... [insidegnss.com]
That can earn you five- or six-figure fines as a user, or eight-figur
Re: (Score:3)
I'm happily driving a 30 year old truck ...
Yup. These stories just make me want to keep my 2001 Civic Ex (133k miles) and 2002 CR-V Ex (60k miles) which are both in good condition and have manual transmissions. I also have the Honda Service for the Civic, which has helped a lot over the years. They'll need painting at some point though.
Re: (Score:2)
Personally I prefer a modern car that I'm far less likely to die in than simply avoiding some digital system, but you do you.
Re: (Score:2)
I had an Impala... it was easy, it was in a rear wheel well, accessible from the trunk interior. I disconnected it and then tested all the critical vehicle features to ensure Chevy hadn't routed things through it to make it unremoveable.
They hadn't. I think I lost the OnStar function, which I wasn't subscribing to anyway.
Just google for it for your vehicle. It's not a big deal. Though I believe OnStar used an older cellular network that's no longer active anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
For many GM vehicles with OnStar, it's not THAT difficult to physically disable the system if you so desire. The controller isn't hard to identify and you simply physically disconnect it. I have done this on my wife's GM SUV as we don't use the service (never subscribed). Here's a simplified example of how to disable it. There's plenty of info online about specific makes/models with instructions to disable.
https://www.wikihow.com/Deacti... [wikihow.com]
Best,
Re: (Score:2)
I'm afraid it'll be harder to find something like that as time goes on.
You're right to be afraid. With EU regulations demanding 100% of cars have emergency calling for several years now 100% of car companies operating in the west will be developing these systems for their baseline vehicle platforms. It will be a difficult discussion with the accountants to then say the feature shouldn't be deployed in all cars in all markets given that they market it as a "value add" while at the same time profiting from the data collected.
Event Data Recorder (Score:3)
Do you know that 95% of all new cars have an "event data recorder" built into them to record key information about the car for a few seconds before a crash? Information like the speed of the car, accelerator position, whether the seatbelts are connected, braking status, and others are all stored in this "black box" inside your car. Accident investigators, insurance companies, and law enforcement can access this information to help during an investigation.
So, how do you know if your car is equipped with an EDR? Their appearance and locations vary widely in vehicles, so it’s important to consult your owner’s manual. Federal law requires that all cars built after Sept. 1, 2012 include a notice in the owner’s manual if a vehicle has an EDR. The manuals for cars built before that date may or may not contain a notice. https://exchange.aaa.com/autom... [aaa.com]
Re:Event Data Recorder (Score:4, Informative)
This is not as much of a problem, since the data recorder is local.
The problem is when they transmit data back to the company, who can be ordered to release it without you knowing about it.
Re: (Score:3)
True. This is more of a FYI post so people in accidents can ask their lawyers or insurance investigators to collaborate the speed at which they were traveling, etc.
I had a friend recently get in an accident and the police wrote him a ticket because the other driver stated he was speeding. Knowing there is an independent record of your vehicle data might be helpful.
Re: (Score:2)
Dash cams work far better than that. I was in a T-bone collision last year. Other driver swore he had a green light. My dash cam trivially disproved him. Providing that video was I all needed to do instead of a drawn out he-said-she-said fight that wouldn't have been solved by a black-box.
Captain Obvious is it? Pleased to meet you. (Score:1)
Who didn't see this coming? Of course such technology would be abused.
I expect to see in the near future more and more people "unplugging" as many devices from the internet as they can. That's not the same as people unplugging themselves. I expect people will still want to be able to make phone calls, surf the web, consume streamed content, and so much else. What they will do though is keep the devices with internet connectivity to a smaller number of devices, and those devices that are connected will b
Re: Captain Obvious is it? Pleased to meet you. (Score:2)
âoeMaybe the government needs to get involvedâ - and do what? The government wants to be able to buy that data so it can get around those pesky civil rights.
Worse than your phone? (Score:2)
Welcome to the surveillance state 2.0 (Score:2)
Your choices: Bicycle for short distances, horse-back (? donno), use public transport for long distances (mostly absent in US) or agree to be surveilled.
BTW, do motorbikes have all of this stuff too?
Re: (Score:2)
... or agree to be surveilled. BTW, do motorbikes have all of this stuff too?
Nobody's forbidding you to just pull the SIM card out of your car, or take a wire cutter to the power supply of the mobile transmitter the car uses to phone home if you are really paranoid.
If you obey the law (Score:2)
then you have nothing to hide, citizen.
Re: (Score:2)
You get free 4G mobile connectivity. But not free data. These SIMs are licensed under specific vehicle only plans and are severely limited in speed and data unless the licensee pays for service (which some companies do for a couple of years in a new car).