Asklemmy

Always remember that once you sign the dotted line, there's no changing your mind later. That's the advice I received in the Navy from my Chief. This is where doing your homework really pays off.

When buying a car, try to plan ahead ten to twenty years. Most people don't buy a new car every couple of years, so you'll need a car that suits your needs for a long time.

Are you planning on getting married and having kids one day? Maybe a minivan. Do you do a lot of trade work? Maybe a pickup truck. Are you just trying to get from point A to point B? Maybe just a regular four-seat car. Planning ahead will save you headaches in the future.

Get something that's easy to repair yourself, the spare parts are cheap, and are easily obtainable. Some brands are extremely difficult to fix yourself and that's by design.

As for car internet privacy, I don't know what to tell you.

Are cars outside the United States more privacy conscious, or is this a gap in GDPR as well?

Read the manual

Buy one made before, I dunno, 2005?

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

I only saw a few people saying this, but buy a used car from anywtime-2012 max.

Make sure that car is in good shape, has been up to date on oil changes and was well taken care of. And if you wants some newer car features, adding in a newer stereo could do the trick.

But get used to learning how to fix your car because less cars will be made that meet your requirements. Meaning that if you don't to sacrifice privacy for a new car when yours breaks down, be ready to fix it.

There's no way you're "covering up" an antenna. Frequently the antenna is the body of the car itself.

Look up the fuse box layout of the car model you're interested in to check if the communication system is on a separate fuse that you can pull without disabling anything else useful.

The effort needed to neuter surveillance equipment in modern cars without compromising functionality is comparable to the effort of sprucing up an older car. Possibly biased from driving and maintaining a decades-old car. Is there a particular reason you prefer a modern car?

Maintaining privacy in a (new) car might be difficult. Maybe by emitting white noise with an external bluetooth speaker so that possible microphones can't pick up voices easily?

The problem with privacy in a new car is that there is nothing much one can do about it. Even if it were possible by altering the cars' software (think of something like the equivalent of a browser extension for your car), this might pose a problem in case of an accident (the insurance will try to refuse compensation, because the cars' software has been altered and thus, the car is deemed to be not road safe).

One thing to aviod this problem would be to buy an older, used car. With that, there wouldn't be any issues regarding privacy, but mainaining the car might be more expensive, as older cars often have worse emission standards, which can result in higher taxes, depending on where you are located. Also, older cars might have a worse fuel effiency than new cars, depending on the size, weight and engine power of the car. An old economic compact car might have the same fuel efficiency as the latest doomsday street tank.

My personal advice: a used compact car, not older than five years (the older the car, the more repairs might come up, also there is a chance that a car this age already has a USB port for connecting a thumb drive or phone equipped with music), but with rear doors. Having two additional doors is an underrated feature that not only comes in handy when you pick up some friends, but they also serve as additional loading hatches that are accessible from both sides of the car.

Don't forget that even if you can disable its network connection (which is still an important step to avoid remote control shenanigans), the data collection may still continue, and if that's the case the make's diagnostic software will forward it to the cloud the next time your car is at service. I'm afraid that can't be avoided.

Find where the cellular antenna is, and cover it with a rudimentary faraday cage.

Is there a way to disable the cellular antenna? Vehicle have to be prepared for dead spots. Maybe yours is always in a dead spot.

your username 🥰

Buy a renault 12

financially aim for minimal depreciation. typically thats buying a 3 year old car and selling it when its 6 or 7. try to find total cost of ownership data to minimize repair costs.

practically find one that suits your needs.

I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think you can really maintain privacy.

Sure, maybe you can disable some antennas to stop your location from being broadcast, but there are cameras in ever major road, so you cant get far without being spotted by a camera. Cars can also store data locally, then if you take your to the dealership, they will access the data. So you'd have to find an individual car mechanic that doesn't read this data, and at anytime, they can betray your trust. Not to mention, your phone is kinda already tracking you, so you'd have to turn that off as well, even dumbphones still have cellular triangulation and has even worse security. And whenever you need to use your phone, the carrier will know where you are.

So I think in the modern world with all these cameras, you kinda have to accept that you ain't gonna get much privacy.

Or the alterative is to not have a phone on you when you travel, take public transport, cover your face, etc.

If you want privacy, you'll have to sacrifice convienience.