Can I please just get a car, instead of a rolling computer / infotainment / privacy nightmare?

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Wow, this is wildly unacceptable. Why in the hell would a car company need the user’s immigration status? Or genetic information? Or fucking sexual activity?! I hope somebody sues these asshole companies.

  • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    As an environmentalist this really bothers me. I want a new electric car which is better for the planet. I no longer think I can. I would probably have to pick up an older model. What a joke. I’m too angry about the way the world is progressing, our privacy is eroded faster that we can take steps to mitigate.

    • Mrs_deWinter@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      The best alternative would probably be, if feasible at all, a bike coupled with public transport. For our privacy as well as for the environment.

      • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        tbf public transport can be very bad for privacy, depending on the politics of your country… granted, with facial and other recognition nowhere is safe

    • notfromhere@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      I wish Tesla kept selling the “$35k Model 3” that was stripped down and had no cameras or autopilot. Essentially just an electric vehicle with no bells and whistles.

  • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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    1 year ago

    I’m still wondering how they’d be able to collect race, genetic, sexual, etc. information, some of those things don’t seem at all possible, but they’re somehow listed anyway, which is doubly scary

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      No actual idea, but I think there’s a considerable amount of cars that are filled with cams and mics “for your convenience”.
      Including the (afaik) mandatory SOS button, that has a mic and a cellular connection.

      • Ronno@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This indeed, it is quite easy to scan video feeds of the interior camera and determine these characteristics, as well as link them to social media scraping to find your preferences. Scary AF

      • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, that’s reasonable to explain many things for well equipped cars, but the genetic information??

        • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, that’s a good question. Maybe the steering wheel absorbs and tests the driver’s sweat? Lol this sounds overboard, and almost certainly it is, but I can’t think of anything that would warrant that part

          • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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            1 year ago

            Haha, yep, it would also be unreasonably expensive, but who knows?
            Maybe they get that by correlating your profile with data of some entity that does have it, because it was collected and shared by a health company you might used services from. No amount of tinfoil hats will protect us

  • Ocelot@lemmies.world
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    1 year ago

    Im really curious as to how a nissan gathers details about sexual activity. I mean teslas have interior cameras that use image recognition to confirm that your eyes are on the road for safety, The data verifiably never leaves the car and is never saved but “Collecting data on facial expressions” seems like kind of a weird and dishonest spin on that.

    “Volkswagen’s cars reportedly know if you’re fastening your seatbelt” Is that just the occupancy sensor and seat belt sensor letting you know you forgot to fasten your seatbelt? or that one of your passengers is unbuckled? I wouldn’t consider that an invasion of privacy.

    Collecting the data is not whats important when theres safety implications. Its what’s done with the data thats important and potentially privacy invading. Nissan does have the term about selling your data in writing, thats probably more of a legal blanket statement to cover them in the future for some super weird edge case.

    Generally speaking privacy invasions are more aligned with free services

      • notfromhere@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        From the article you linked:

        In its Customer Privacy Notice, Tesla explains that if a customer agrees to share data, “your vehicle may collect the data and make it available to Tesla for analysis. This analysis helps Tesla improve its products, features, and diagnose problems quicker.” It also states that the data may include “short video clips or images,” but isn’t linked to a customer’s account or vehicle identification number, “and does not identify you personally.”

        So (1) it is opt-in specifically, and (2) that article is taking about the external cameras.

      • Ocelot@lemmies.world
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        1 year ago

        Sorry I don’t see any indication that this was from the interior camera, only the exterior cameras recording public spaces (dashcam)

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      The data verifiably never leaves the car and is never saved but

      Sorry but how… how do you verify this?
      Is all of the Tesla car software suite open source? Are the schematics of the car, at least about all the cabling and technical components publicly available? Or was it just the Tesla PR department saying that they of course don’t do that because they value your privacy so, so much?

      Tesla cares are big, remote controllable black boxes, that can receive software updates at any moment without you even knowing.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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      1 year ago

      Tesla absolutely collects this data on their servers. I don’t think the execs over at German car makers have learned how their computer can be used to store videos just yet, but once they do, I’m sure they’ll follow Tesla’s example of letting employees watch funny or sexy video’s from their cars’ internal external cameras.

      Collecting data comes with the very, very high burden of protecting that data. The car industry, known for it’s “the lawsuits over dead family members are cheaper than a recall” attitude, isn’t exactly prepared to carry that burden. In some cars you can’t even wipe the collected data before selling it to another person.

      The only way to protect data is to not collect it at all. Databases of what cars were purchased where by who are an excellent source of information for thieves. Blackmail through hacked accounts and stolen cars is trivial. This weird data hunger that started with advertiser companies and has infected modern industries is a recipe for disaster everywhere it spreads.

      Either way, neither my bike nor the train has been gathering information about my sexual activities.

      • Ocelot@lemmies.world
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        1 year ago

        I had no idea that tesla employees had seen interior camera shots. Do you have an article?

        • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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          1 year ago

          It looks like you’re right, the leaked videos only showed interiors recorded by Tesla’s cameras, not the video from the interior of the car itself. I must’ve misread a new article about this.

          Sharing these videos is still a clear breach of trust and the Dutch DPA has already forced Tesla to limit the Sentry Mode capabilities for privacy reasons, but it looks like they haven’t completed their investigation into the Tesla Files case yet. I don’t know if the interior camera was abused in the same way, if it was I’m sure the investigation (or ongoing lawsuit) will tell.

          • notfromhere@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            It’s also opt-in by the car owner. Even Firefox will suck up your private data if you opt-in yet this community seems fine with that.

    • ErwinLottemann@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      about the tesla interior camera. no it does not. at least not in a very useful way. it tries to maybe detect that you probably are not distracted. one way to make it give up is wearing sunglasses.

      • Ocelot@lemmies.world
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        1 year ago

        I wear sunglasses to drive all the time. If I look down at the touchscreen to use the nav it beeps at me and tells me to keep my eyes on the road. It will even detect if you have a phone in your hand. Where do you see that it doesn’t monitor in any useful way? Would you prefer that people not be reminded of distracted driving?

    • Ronno@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No, the issue is not cars, the issue is governments allowing, or actively pushing these companies to mass surveillance on a wide scale. This goes beyond the car. Children born today will never experience Privacy.