this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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A Seattle-based appellate judge ruled that the practice does not meet the threshold for an illegal privacy violation under state law, handing a big win to automakers Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago (2 children)

That's a very good reason to not connect your phone to your car.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago (2 children)

That's a very good reason to not buy any car which has this interception "feature".

[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That’s a very good way of saying don’t buy anything built in the last five years

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

*9 years, actually.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

Or you can deny the permission when you connect it

[–] Eheran 38 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Appellate court (appellate judge) aka second instance court. So while not the end of discussion, that is quite absurd.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

I'm short of time so I haven't found the original complaint but according to the appeals court ruling, the plaintiffs never claimed any actual damages. The heading of the law in question is "Violating right of privacy—Civil action—Liability for damages."

Is this a privacy violation? Yes. Did these people suffer any actual damages under the law? Evidently not.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I bought my first car this year, I am very happy with it, it is a 2021 Seat Leon PHEV, but shit like this is terrible.

I remember several years ago when I noted that cars had started comming with emergency SOS buttons and apps, that made me realize that there had to be a built in mobile phone connection, and after reading some more, yep, I was right, automakers put in a cell phone module with an eSIM that is allways connected, meaning the car keeps talking to the automakers servers, even if you don't connect a phone.

This means that it is worth it to the automakers to add a phone module and continously pay for a subscription for every car, even if you don't use the feature, that is scary.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Working for a Mobile network provider that does connectivity for cars among other things i can add to that, that they are paying a fairly high price for this stuff too.

[–] captainlezbian 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ok so maybe the legislature should stop it

[–] Treczoks 7 points 7 months ago

Not just maybe. This must stop.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

encrypt everything, layers and layers of encryption and then feed them garbage

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

OK, I finally read the original allegation and this is grossly irresponsible reporting. We can put our pitchforks down. The plaintiffs never even claim that the automakers can access your text messages in the first place. This is entirely about the car’s hardware locally caching the messages it displays, some of which could possibly then be read from the cache using specialized and not commonly available equipment.

Is it something to be aware of? Sure. Is something the average person should be concerned about? Not really.

[–] haulyard 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Is anyone familiar enough to know if this includes text via Apple CarPlay?

[–] notannpc 8 points 7 months ago

I believe CarPlay is still almost entirely controlled by the Apple device and the screen in the car is a glorified display. So the car would likely know that you’re using CarPlay but probably not much else.

[–] zepheriths 3 points 7 months ago

Well, sucks for Washington.