Cars Have Your Location. This Spy Firm Wants to Sell It to the U.S. Military
vice.com
vice.com
I just pulled the power cable.
The car did not throw any error messages and functioned as normal.
> "Ulysses can provide our clients with the ability to remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real time basis," the document, written by contractor The Ulysses Group, reads. "Currently, we can access over 15 billion vehicle locations around the world every month," the document adds.
https://www.toyota.com/privacyvts/
> Driving Data. We collect your Driving Behavior Data (“Driving Data”) which includes the acceleration and speed at which your vehicle is driven, travel direction, and use of the steering and braking functionality in your vehicle. Driving Data is used to deliver Connected Services, and App Suite services to you, and for quality confirmation, data analysis, research, and product development.
> Driving Data. We will store such data for a period of time not to exceed 20 years from the date of receipt by us, unless otherwise required by law, legal process or litigation.
Oh, by the way:
> Remote Data. At last Ignition Off, we may collect the Real Time Status of your vehicle (i.e., vehicle location, status of powered doors, windows, hood, trunk, sunroof, hazard lights, odometer reading, oil life, fuel economy, trip distance, distance to empty) so you can remotely access your vehicle’s most recent information. Toyota uses this information to deliver Remote services to you.
> Location Data. We will store such data for a period of time not to exceed 20 years from the date of receipt by us, unless otherwise required by law, legal process or litigation.
So basically, your car phones home every time you turn it off.
> Warning: If you do not deactivate Connected Services, you specifically consent to our electronic collection and use of your personal information and vehicle data as described above and our storage of such data wherever we designate.
> If you do not notify us of a sale or transfer of your vehicle, we may continue to send reports or other information about the vehicle or account to the subscriber’s contact information currently on file with us. In such case, we are not responsible for any privacy related damages you may suffer.
Such nice people!
It would be nice if opt-in by default was illegal. It's certainly immoral. People cannot consent to something they likely don't know is happening.
Surely you would know if there was a SIM card in your car? How else could this be done?
It's just that PEVs allow manufacturers to reset expectations and greenwash a lot of business practices that would otherwise trigger a consumer revolt -- make the machines not serviceable, make them disposable, and make them constantly tracked/remotely controlled. Kill the secondary market for repairs and sales, and own the total automotive spend.
That car manufacturers made the association between this power-grab and an electric powertrain is truly a genius public psyop. Even now, if you point out how anti-consumer and anti-freedom these practices are, you get attacked as destroying the planet's future. Just incredible what is happening under the hood, so to speak, of the current PEV movement; which has nothing to do with new sources of power generation and everything to do with new business models.
I wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, manufacturers refuse to sell cars to end users at all, but will only lease you a car if you license various features on an ongoing basis. The whole concept of an ownership society of people who can do what they want with what they buy is under incredible attack by everyone from nanny-state regulators to corporations who want a subscription model and a locked down platform.
We thought we were going to get an Asimovian utopia. Instead it’s more like a sad cross-over between gibson and orwell.