This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
https://www.nissanusa.com/privacy.html
Sensitive personal information, including driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information.
Please make this reach the front page because it's beyond ridiculous
If you don't mind, please also highlight
health diagnosis data
genetic information
Because omfg, think about those for a second, and how any data that leaves your control is subject to eventual collection by law enforcement, legal or not, and anyone else willing to pay for it (or steal it):
For example, some bonehead rears your vehicle one day, but your health diagnosis data says you have a heart condition, or maybe just high blood pressure. These conditions can involve occasional lightheadedness, though you know yours is well controlled. You don't even think about it anymore because you take care of yourself and all your regular tests are good. But suddenly, you're in this minor accident, not even your fault, and it's no longer a simple rearending because some asshole has brought your health history into it so that YOU and not he will be on the hook for monetary damages.
(Triple if the bozo who hit you is some lame ass drunk rural county sheriff or elected official.)
And "genetic information" is code for DNA. How they would collect your DNA from your car I don't know, but do you REALLY want your genetic information associated with your vehicle and outside the confines of GINA* for the convenience of data sellers? I know I don't. (GINA is also the law that binds companies like 23andMe from selling your genetic data.) But the whole point of trying to legislate personal control over your own genetic information is because of all the dystopian scenarios that can easily evolve from others having it without your consent.
Yet now your car wants it too? Question this. Letting anyone have it by such means does a complete end run around any law meant to keep your personal genetic information private, and guts any rights you may have to your own privacy under the law, because you signed it away. Imagine the billions insurance companies could make, both health and auto, by refusing to pay for this or that because genetically it was a "pre-existing condition" or a "contributing factor" to you getting rearended by a drunk.
I've never been so thrilled to drive an ancient beater in my life.
*Note: GINA is weak already, but legislators are trying to weaken it further still: in 2018 a proposed change meant that "Employers would have been able to demand workers' genetic test results if the bill were to have been enacted."
How do they even capture this stuff? Are you expected to write some essays before you can buy the car?
Meh, it's a CYA policy. They're not actively collecting that data, but if you mention something in those categories in an email, chat, phone call, etc to a Nissan employee, that data might be stored.
Lucky for me I can’t afford a new car anyway. I’ll just keep driving my unconnected car.
No kidding, it’s ridiculous to think they expect us to fork over $25k for cars that will invade our privacy. I have a 23 year old car I’ll drive till it’s dead before that ever happens.
It's legitimately cool that buying a new car and having any self-respect whatsoever are mutually exclusive now.
Fuck cars.
Oh cool! So cars will be free now since the manufacturers are turning drivers into the product. Right? Right guys? Cars will be free?
Tesla is only the second product we have ever reviewed to receive all of our privacy “dings.” (The first was an AI chatbot we reviewed earlier this year.) What set them apart was earning the “untrustworthy AI” ding. The brand’s AI-powered autopilot was reportedly involved in 17 deaths and 736 crashes and is currently the subject of multiple government investigations.
How utterly unsurprising. Also,
"Consent” is an illusion
Many people have lifestyles that require driving. So unlike a smart faucet or voice assistant, you don’t have the same freedom to opt out of the whole thing and not drive a car.
This is the kicker, many people need cars for unrelated reasons and the fact that ALL car brands abuse our data means there is no alternative.
we need a mozilla or a linux car tbh..that is feature upgradable..like adding extensions or apps
We need cars that aren't giant IoT boxes that keep phoning home. The vast majority of "smart" car systems shouldn't need an Internet connection to function. But yes, I agree with your sentiment.
Never gonna happen unless governments force them.
What WILL happen is that more and more non-critical features will become pay to play. You'll rent the air conditioner in your car.
Installing your own software will become (or likely already is) illegal since if you're u do that you could play without pay on the car that you paid for with your money.
Corporations must be limited I'm what they can do, NOW. No more data monitoring and selling. No more ads pushed. No more pay to play. No more limiting what you can do with the products that you buy and own
Then we can joke for two decades that this year will be the year the Linux car will be able to drive
US needs to regulate how data is collected by all companies. This shit is just gross. Is this perhaps one of the reasons why right to repair is opposed so strongly across industries? In addition to selling overpriced manufacturer repair they don’t want us to cripple one of their revenue streams.
From what I understand, right to repair would give consumers and independent repair shops the ability to repair their items and grant them access to schematics/repair manuals, specialty tools, and parts.
In theory, this should make it easier to develop aftermarket parts. And for electronics and software, be able to develop drop in replacements, flash aftermarket hardware, and that function of the car should still work.
In this case car manufacturers don’t want people to rip out their embedded spyware and thus uncouple them from using their data collecting phone apps.
Currently aware of at least one report of a couple of car manufacturers backing some astroturfing groups to oppose right to repair [1]
[1] https://www.ifixit.com/News/80635/car-companies-are-astroturfing-right-to-repair
US needs to regulate how data is collected by all companies. This shit is just gross.
This would be lovely, and I agree with you, but unfortunately the people scraping every inch of all of our data are the exact same people drafting legislation that they then turn over to their purchased politicians to submit with no edits.
Something needs to be done, but it can't be done in the system as is. We need a real overhaul, at least of electors if not the system itself, before anything is going to get better.
So you're telling me that you pay tens of thousands and still pay with privacy
Guess I’m driving my 2010 Honda Accord and burns oil and leaks steering fluid a few more years.
Should probably get the steering thing fixed.
I drive 25 years old car. It was pretty expensive when it was new so it has all the features I care about. I will not buy a new car until I'm forced to. Also the option to just turn on seats heating without having to pay monthly is quite a bonus.
Does this apply to European cars as well? Do we need to start filing GDPR complaints against car manufacturers?
I mean, read the article and especially some of the individual reviews. GDPR is all over the place.
As a TL;DR cars made for the EU market score much better than US models, but the devil is in the details. If you've got some time at hand, it's a real eye-opener to go over their summary at the very least.
Mazda wasn't on the list, so I was curious: https://www.mazdausa.com/site/privacy-connectedservices
At least they won't sell your data without permission, for what it's worth these days.
I'm over here in my wife's Hyundai smoking weed, having unprotected sex and drinking hard liquor. I can't wait for my targeted ads. Served to me on my prison issued JPay translucent tablet. Thank god for technology.
Sometimes I'm glad I drive an old, barebones features car.
My cars best tech is the CD player lmao
Why is Mozilla consumer reports
They keep it pretty narrow, their focus has always been very heavy in privacy. They don't report on anything else really, just the privacy aspect.
Best way to sell a browser and software services built on privacy is to do a lot of consumer reports emphasizing the value of privacy.
Somebody had to take up the mantle since Consumer Reports cannot be trusted anymore
What happened with consumer reports?
ctrl+f "volvo"
Not listed, so you know what that means! Great result via omission! Looks like my loved ones are all good then!
Hardly seems surprising that Renault / Dacia is the least worst since it is a European car company that doesn't sell in the US. I should point out though that Dacia holds the record for the absolute worst NCAP safety ratings at this time and some Renault cars aren't far behind. So swings and roundabouts.
Do humans listen to what we say in our cars? Can I scar someone for life by describing kinks I find on the internet or saying stuff like "babe, pull over...the mechanical pencil lead just broke off in my penis"
On a more serious note, perhaps I will cover the tracking camera in my car. Didn't want it, but it came with the stupid trim level of my car (makes sure you aren't falling asleep on the road/distracted.)
Merkel years ago: " ... to decide, who the cars data belongs to: the manufacturer or the provider"
Freely translated from memory (it was about the cell providers), but the point is; the user was never in consideration.
Oh good, a petition.
I have not read it yet, but do they have any countermeasures people can take?
Not owning a car with smart features
I mean given that all of the manufacturers failed the test what choice do you have? Old cars aren't going to last forever.
My car is from last decade, but I was able to remove its OnStar equivalent phone/internet connection by unplugging a box. I just had to do a little research and find out that the cellular device was in a little box you can disconnect, and where that was located.
As far as I know that has it disconnected from any data-uploading ability. Not sure what data it might be gathering but it can't send it anywhere.
Well that was depressing.
