Cars downloading text messages from phones doesn't violate state privacy law
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
This doesn't match with my experience renting cars. After connecting Bluetooth for calls, I am specifically prompted as to whether or not I want to share contacts or texts. Of course I always choose "No". If you choose "Yes" to the question about sharing contacts and texts, it seems hard to complain that the car stores your contacts and texts.
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Sett...
The prompt is relatively new for iPhones though. I've had plenty of rental cars where Apple users' entire phonebooks had been uploaded to the car.
Basically, the lawsuit found that this is exactly the same concept as syncing your phone's messages to your laptop or a personal device like that, all on local storage. The fact that the car doesn't protect the data isn't all that alarming: plenty of people have unprotected data sitting on their laptops and flash drives. Again, this isn't cloud storage or Internet-connected services here, this is old world Bluetooth phone calls and texts infotainment.
> The class-action complaint contended that "text message and call log data copied onto the vehicle can be, and is, transmitted to users of Berla's equipment without requiring any kind of password, biometric, or other security measure." The complaint pointed to a 2017 CyberScoop report that quoted Berla CEO and founder Ben LeMere as saying his firm was working with carmakers to educate them on securing private data, but only "when it's part of an agreement that they will allow law enforcement in."
> A Ford court filing said that making a vehicle containing an infotainment system does not create liability under the state law "any more than selling computers and smartphones to purchasers who make and record calls and store texts on their devices. Any recording in this case was done by Plaintiffs, or by the system itself, which resides in a vehicle they own or use."
Ask the phone for you contacts list when you need to view contacts? Ask the phone for text data when you need to view texts? Why wouldn't it work like that?
When I make a phone call, does it record both parties' voices and store them on the car's hard drive, or does it just stream the voice data through the car to and from the phone? It's the latter. So it's reasonable that someone might expect the other functions to work that way.
Corporations stealing data from the people - business.
Governments stealing data from corporations - national security.
People stealing data from corporations - copyright infringement.
People stealing data from governments - treason.
I hope that this isn't a situation where you have no control, -as that means most people, who don't know that cars do this- wouldn't be able to do a thing even once informed- and are vulnerable to data breaches, now and in the future as cars storing various data expands.