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mmmm taste that free market. im sure that consumer will use their money to buy elsewhere, thereby telling volkswagon exactly how that behavior will be tolerated!
this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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yep. the invisible hand of the market will surely correct for this and everything will become just and good... as long as pesky regulations don't stick their noses in it....
And unions! We all know how evil and horrible those unions are. I'm sure it's their fault too!
No doubt exactly how Volkswagen went under when people stopped buying them because they maliciously tampered with emissions computers, literally poisoning people around their cars to make them look more efficient. Justice will no doubt be swift for these large organisations.
I see. A cop can call up VW and get your car's location whenever they want, even if you've cancelled any sort of tracking service.
If the owner of the car is consenting to have it tracked, I don't see the problem here. Why do you make it sound like the police overreached?
I seriously doubt vw cares if the owner consents.
In this case, they absolutely did, and it didn’t matter . I would bet that the reverse is true and that if they absolutely don’t consent, it still doesn’t matter.
I guess I'd like to believe car telemetry is governed like any other resource police have access to. Investigators can ask email services for logs, phone providers for location data, banks for transaction records, but would all require a warrant.
Owner consent changes the discussion significantly, especially with something this time sensitive. If my kid is kidnapped I absolutely want them to get access as quickly as possible, not waste time waiting on a judge. That should include cooperation and reactivating an expired subscription as part of supporting the investigation.
I take it you haven’t seen the latest articles on police access to prescriptions……
It all depends on the company deciding that they value your privacy over government money.
You're assuming you still own your personal information... You should, but in reality you don't (stated in this specific context, but I do mean it in a broader sense as well. Much broader than should be) .
They don't need a warrant if the company consents... Its your personal information, but the company owns it. They can and do sell it, and the decision on wether to give it to law enforcement is on them.
My comment isn't specific to this incident.
VW gave all owners access to free car-net for 5 years because of this screw up.
There used to a joke that those OnStar systems would call the cops on you for DUI and every day that is closer to being reality. I don't condone drinking and driving but the government invasion of privacy is pretty scary too.
Didn't they help the nazis too? It never stops with those guys
Help the Nazis? Volkswagen was literally started by the Nazis.
True but also entirely irrelevant, this isn’t some unusually nefarious plot or racist agenda at work.
Just plain old capitalism, blind greed over everything. This could have been literally any manufacturer and it would have been neither a surprise nor made a difference
what the fuck
This is the best summary I could come up with:
According to a Chicago Sun-Times article, "the Car-Net trial period had ended, and a representative wanted $150 to restart the service and locate the SUV."
The detective pleaded, explaining the "extremely exigent circumstance," but the representative didn't budge, saying it was company policy, sheriff's office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said Friday.
"Volkswagen has a procedure in place with a third-party provider for Car-Net Support Services involving emergency requests from law enforcement.
A man wearing a mask got out of the BMW "and struggled to get into the victim's Volkswagen, as she tried to keep her 2-year-old son safe," the sheriff's office said.
The perpetrators fled, and the person who called 911 "rescued the child from the parking lot" before the boy could wander onto the busy roadway.
When contacted by Ars today, Covelli said the sheriff's office is still searching for the BMW and believes the car is still in the area.
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