So this was a gps tracker that was installed by a fleet and never removed. The larger issue is that most car companies in the US are reselling your data on newish vehicles (2016+) anyway. I am still amazed that this is not a larger issue.
A fun read related to this: "Privacy Nightmare on Wheels: Every Car Brand Reviewed by Mozilla - Including Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota - Flunks Privacy Test"
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-...
Small excerpt:
>The very worst offender is Nissan. The Japanese car manufacturer admits in their privacy policy to collecting a wide range of information, including sexual activity, health diagnosis data, and genetic data — but doesn’t specify how. They say they can share and sell consumers’ “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” to data brokers, law enforcement, and other third parties.
The phenomena you're describing isn't about caring.
You're describing a "trade" in the same way mobsters and conmen do.
The costs of talking to friends endlessly about this boring privacy is having no friends. You're telling an addict what they are doing is not good for them, but they are not ready to hear it.