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Comment by oceanplexian | Hacker News Reader

I purchased a Bolt as well. Literally the day after I drove it off the lot, I found and modified the electrical connections to the Onstar antenna system, as I'm fairly handy with electronics and work on all my own cars. If you yank the fuse you'll also lose hands free bluetooth calling and some other features, so you have to use it.

Anyway, told this story to many people, and they looked at me like I'm a conspiracy nut. Well this will be the 1000'th conspiracy I worried about that turned out to be completely true, imagine that.

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I own a Bolt (bought used) and have never activated OnStar, and I'm extremely unhappy to learn that it might be spying on me.

I did some reading when the NYT article came out, and found this, which explains how to install a terminator on the antenna to disable the cell connection: https://imgur.com/gallery/n00QKnH. If you go that route, it's probably prudent to make sure your car isn't connected to wifi, either. (Edit: looks like that guide came from here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BoltEV/comments/16h91a6/i_made_a_st...)

Apparently some Bolts newer than mine have a different fuse configuration that puts Bluetooth and OnStar on separate fuses: https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/remove-mobile-data-chip.33...

^ that Bolt forum thread also talks about some of the downsides of disabling the antenna (e.g. GPS won't work so your home/away charging settings don't work anymore).

Phone meta data is tracked. Car meta data is tracked. Supplement with credit card data, browsing history, the Rings in your neighborhood, etc., etc., etc.

Per, "Stand Out of Our Light", we don't stand a chance.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/20/stand-out-of...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MaIO2UIvJ4g

Remember that 10 or 20 years ago, BEFORE phone, car and doorbell camera data was tracked, people were already saying "everything is tracked, we don't stand a chance", and this defeatist attitude has since contributed to allowing phone, car an doorbell camera data to be tracked as well.

You'd have to read the book. He uses "you don't stand a chance" in the context of will power.

That is, in short, (and I'm paraphrasing): ...Some of the brightest human behavior experts in the world are being financed by some of the deepest pockets in the history of the world to influence your (read: our) behavior... Just use will power? You don't stand a chance.

The "defeatist" to me is, "I don't have anything to hide." That might be true, but those influence super powers are going to use that "nothing to hide" against you.

Read the book. It's just over 100 pages. It's on the order of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" but that book is 500+ pages. THoSC is great but it's a serious commitment.

> He uses "you don't stand a chance" in the context of will power.

Having taken every reasonable measure I can to stop being spied on, I can concur that it does take a lot of willpower. As in, being willing to come across as a total ass to those trying to spy on you on behalf of their employers and also willing to literally walk away from the register leaving the stuff you've collected in the hopes of buying. ("But we require your name and phone number or we won't honor any of the warranties for what you're buying.") Paying cash for everything. Avoiding specific restaurants and shops that don't accept cash. Foregoing "members discounts" at the grocery market. Buying a specific phone just to install a third-party privacy-centric ROM. Buying a specific car just to be able to pull the fuse that powers the transmitter.

You can drastically reduce the amount of information that the data brokers collect on you, but I've found it's almost as if you need to adopt a new lifestyle in a lot of ways.

Guess we live in different worlds. Pretty much everyone around me, friend, family, coworker, or neighbor is fully aware and expecting any and all devices around them to be spying. Not all care or think it's nefarious though.

Welcome to customized pricing for everything, based on how much they think you value inconvenience vs spending money.

Dark patterns are the new frontier of corporate greed. Every business model now needs a “moat” (monopoly) to be considered fundable. The antitrust skirtings are built into the whitepaper these days, and having competition in your space is a bad smell. The invisible hand of the market and all that lol.

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