Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Can we prevent cars from sending data to servers if we remove their antennae? (self.privacy)

submitted 10 months ago by MigratingtoLemmy to c/[email protected]

103 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I don't know anything about cars.

Now that we have established that cars seriously undermine our privacy (look at the flurry of posts in this community in the last few hours), what can we do about it?

From a networking POV, if you remove the ability to connect to the Internet, it doesn't matter what the car is recording as long as you can ensure there is no physical tampering. Depending on who you are, this is a good idea, and doable for the most part (very few people have the technical knowledge to pull out the right chip from a car).

So, how do we achieve this? I implore the community to invite mechanical/car engineers who can help us on this matter, and to form methods to prevent vehicles from accessing the Internet without express consent from the user.

Thanks!

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[–] over_clox 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (19 children)

I've had a thought I'd love to have a chance to try one day...

I'd like to see about not only disconnecting the antenna, but also basically wrap the cellular circuit module in metal screen, basically a crude Faraday Cage.

I've never had any chance to try such a thing, but I can only imagine it would probably do the trick.

Edit: For those that believe this will cause the vehicle to malfunction or even brick itself, have you never drove through a tunnel and found you lost Internet? Your vehicle won't stop functioning just because it lost Internet, it literally cannot do that.

That would be like the absolutely most unsafe thing any vehicle could ever do, to stop functioning because of an internet connection failure.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

So only thing is they might just store all the data locally and send it when they get reception again. Microsoft Word used to do this with "Aria"

[+] over_clox -11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Do you not understand what a Faraday Cage is or does? It literally blocks radio frequencies.

Cover the module in a metal screen, block any and all data transmission and reception, without even altering the electronics.

And the vehicle ain't got much other choice but to keep functioning as expected anyways, as it's expected to have signal loss at times anyways.

Edit: If you think losing internet connection is gonna break your vehicle, well God forbid you ever drive through a tunnel...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I think they mean it would cache the data and release it if you ever had to remove the screen for whatever reason.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Driving through a tunnel is a short break in connectivity. These things are probably built in such a way that they'll brick after not being able to connect for an extended period since not working due to a short disconnect would give the brand a bad reputation after happening a few times.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My concern is that Faraday cages have limitations and you should think about mitigations

[–] over_clox 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Seal it in lead then, what you want from me?

I'm just spitballing a possible solution here..

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

20 euros and patience for other people

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