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Can we prevent cars from sending data to servers if we remove their antennae? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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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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[–] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 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.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Or the car just doesn't start one day because it hasn't connected to its server in a month, forcing you to go to the dealer to fix it. Why do you so fervently believe a manufacturer wouldn't resort to tactics like this that they already employ for other systems? It's naive to think that manufacturers would never remotely disable a car in full or in part because it has been modified without authorization. If it profits them, they physically can, and no regulation prevents it, they will. Right to repair is a nice movement, that I fully support, but it's very very far from a universal right anywhere.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Or the car just doesn’t start one day because it hasn’t connected to its server in a month, forcing you >to go to the dealer to fix it.

    You are exaggerating, a manufacturer can't do that. The simple reason is that lots of people live (or spend part of the year) in places where the only internet access is through satellite, this is specially true in big countries. The most probable thing they do is to save all the data until there is internet connection available to send it.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You seem to be confused about the difference between can and will. I don't believe every or even most manufacturers would actually do this, but pretending that they cannot do it (or something like it) purely due to market pressure is naive.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I understand the difference but they never are going to do that for the same reason that they have never and they never will block your phone if its not connected to the internet, there are personal security reasons, they cannot leave you with an unusable phone or car. Even people who dont give a fuck about privacy wouldn't accept something like that, they would go bankrupt.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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"

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  • [+] -11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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...

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years 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.

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