"Vehicle Data Transmission is On!" Sticker

I called Toyota with my VIN in order to request that all tracking be turned off. I followed up with an email request as well and received confirmation that all monitoring was disabled.

The strange thing is that my transmission started shifting much better after monitoring was turned off.

 

Thanks for your post - I've been wondering about this issue. I contacted Toyota and was not satisfied with the answer. I have very little confidence that they could be trusted to turn off the data transmission and an owner would need a lot of tech gear to prove or disprove that the transmission was stopped. I have some countermeasures planned.

 

Wait till it starts being used to determine driving habits for insurance rates.

Would be able to bypass the previous stand alone set ups for that.

 

I called the day I brought my truck home and they said they only get a transmission when you call for help. Take that for whatever it's worth. That said, I'd bet the majority of people don't disable location services on their phone, use the built-in app on their phone for maps, have no idea what a faraday bag is, think their phone is off when they turn it off, etc. etc. Unlike the truck which would only track you when you're driving it, your phone is tracking everywhere you go.

 

Look in your Toyota app. It already is (Insure Connect). You have to authorize sharing the data with Toyota (the default is not sharing), but your vehicle is already collecting it.

 

Fyi. Dealers already sell your mileage data to insurance carriers. If you say you only drive 5000 miles a year, but have had your 10, 20 and 30k service done this year at the dealer... The INS comp buys mileage data from dealers and knows you drive 30k a year and will rate you up for it. Or will have grounds to deny a claim because you lied on the app.
Another reason to do your own service.

 

Why would people know about those things? - that would require a real edukation.

 

You sign a privacy disclosure when you do paperwork at a dealer. This means they can not, will not sell your information.

 

Then how does your vehicle service data end up on Carfax?

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-01-31/car-dealer-odometer-mileage-data-insurance

 

It's my understanding that dealers pay carfax to use it. A car with a carfax history is worth a hair more than without to most folks

 

They do, to be able to use their reports and do things like post them on their websites for prospective purchasers. But they also send information back to Carfax every time you take your car in for service. And dealers do sell mileage information to data collectors like LexisNexis, who in turn sell the information to insurance companies. It's not direct from dealership to insurance company but the end result is the same.

 

They gone get us

 

Yup

The bottom line is if you participate in modern society in any way you are leaving a trail somewhere. Unless you are willing to spends months and months planning and executing a totally off-the-grid existence, there is no way to avoid it. FWIW, multiple Federal Court circuits have ruled that you have no expectation of privacy when you use public roads, so don't expect that to stop anytime soon either. You might disconnect all of the gizmos on your truck, but you've only defeated one of the many ways you are tracked. It's not the collection of the data itself that's bad, it's the potential for misuse that worries people. The vast majority of this data is used in aggregated form. It's like any other technology....it takes a while for laws to catch up with tech.

 

I would argue that the service data belongs to the vehicle - it's tied to the VIN. They can give Carfax the VIN and other pertinent details without telling them anything about the owner.

 

They already did, we are just ok with it...the "apathy" stage of democracy...

Any iPhone users who care about their privacy, read your new TOS closely. You will be consenting to let Apple check all of your media on the cloud and on your device at any time just in case there is child exploitation media.

 

Sounds like most of this thread needs to buy 1st gens and return to smoke signals for communication

 

Things like this and the "creep" of the use are part of the reason I refuse to do the DNA testing like 23andme. Sure it started out as a fun way to know your heritage and possibly meet long lost relatives and that may be the full extent of the company's intent for that data. But now they have that data and there's absolutely no way you can get it back. So the Gov gets access to it through a sympathetic judge. In 10 years insurance companies with deep pockets will be lobbying that this information is critical to their business and that lawmakers should allow them access to the information the Gov has collected.

You may not be concerned about how data about something as simple as your truck's mileage and maintenance is being used now but the scope of privacy invasion almost always expands and who knows how that will be expanded and data used in the next 5, 10, 15 years.

https://www.science.org/news/2019/1...s-americans-without-their-consent-what-s-next

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/969532277/china-wants-your-data-and-may-already-have-it

 

Startling new level of personal monitoring justified with "think of the children" doesn't pass the smell test.

It might be done with good intentions, but you can be sure this technology and access will be used in other ways. Would you give Apple a key to your house just in case there is child porn? If they promise not to use everything else they learn from that search or loan the key to anyone else, would you believe them?