More surprising that the car has some call home feature that the owner doesn't seem to know about.
Mercedes and Audi have similar systems, as do others via OnStar. This is one of few cases where i believe having an "oh shit" button/system that automatically activates in case of serious accident or another event is valuable.
EDIT: oh, and this is entirely opt-in, at least on BMW.
Everytime I take my 2016 in to service, I ask both sales and service to disable teleservices. They say they cannot. I then call BMW teleservices (every time), and they tell me that the dealer has to do it.
There are explicit instructions from BMW online that in Germany you can take it to the dealer to have it disabled. No mention of any other country.
Yes, the emergency aspect of it is valuable. It's not worth the compromise in privacy, at the complete discretion and ineptitude of a corporation that has a profit motive.
In 2016, I certainly did not sign (and was not asked) any kind of doc authorizing location disclosure. My car definitely does have teleservices activated. (don't know if they will report my location)
- remote car monitoring/bmw connected app. this can be tweaked (its off by default) via idrive. I believe there is also some anonymized sharing with "parknow" and real time traffic apps.
- maintenance notifications. this is on by default and can be disabled in bmw's new "my car" website. They also send you a postcard letting you know its on periodically.
- "sos" services - I would call BMW and ask to have it turned off (its on by default). The signing of the doc might be depending on the state you're in. Mine's NJ reg, but NY dealer.
If BMW ever shares the location data with third parties other than police, I would have major issues with all of this.
To answer sibling post, SIM cards are located inside the Navi computer, which is a big gray/black metal box behind one of side access panels within the trunk (or under trunk for most sedans). BMWs can also be coded (google that- dealer wont do it) to not use SIM data completely. If you truly want teleservices disabled, find a friendly BMW modder shop adept at coding and they'll help you void your car's warranty :)
By that time it would be too late. And the problem with privacy-related info (like location history) is that once revealed, it can’t be re-secured. So the only proper fix is to not collect it in the first place.
Also BMW is a car company. Consumer data protection is not their core competency. Then info may not be intentionally revealed. A rogue employee may decide to listen in (as in OnStar case). We can’t know what controls they have in place to mitigate risk. Since I obtain almost no value I want to be able to opt out. That they make this difficult is so aggravating. But I love their cars. I wish I could quit you BMW.
I wonder if GDPR is a factor for new car sales. In fact maybe that’s why you got a big packet and had to opt in, and back in 2016 it was instead quite impossible to opt out.
Additionally, my interaction is with BMW USA, not BMW AG. If teleservices is instantiated locally in the US for US customers, then it's doubly the case the BMW need not respond to any such inquiry.
You brought the GDPR into it.
(After reading more about it, the black box is only for cars used in this service, and apparently BMW and DriveNow have a "data protection firewall": BMW only tells DriveNow where the trip started and ended, and doesn't know who rented the car, and DriveNow knows who the renter is but doesn't know more other than the start/end of their trip)
What I didn't know is that it would dial home if the connection was lost. Even the person I spoke to at the dealer wasn't aware of this.