Cars are the New Desktops

For those who remember buying a desktop computer, a laptop, or an android phone, do you remember the first boot? Likely a ton of software was installed, some you can't get rid of. At best, a few pop-ups flashed across the screen asking you to accept the terms of service and privacy policy. At worst, both are referenced in the terms of service at the point of sale. It was hostile to users who just wanted to use their new device.  I always felt that if the software was any good, then none of this would be needed as the new owner would seek out what they wanted.

Introducing the next IoT device with this stupid mentality, your car.  A friend says it best:

I don't want my auto manufacturer to have a privacy policy at all, because they don't have anything that collects data.

The Mozilla Foundation put together a good summary and review of the current generation of cars and their data collection policies, and privacy policies that obfuscate and hide what's being collected. 

As I've said before, I want a car with a manual, physical switch that powers off and disconnects any IoT functionality. I want the car to do everything itself, offline. I'll bring my own phone, but I don't want it required to operate the car. This IoT functionality IS NOT REQUIRED for the car to operate. The point is clearly highlighted by the sub-title of the Wired article.

In the wake of a voter-approved law, Subaru and Kia dealers in Massachusetts have disabled systems that allow remote starts and send maintenance alerts.

It's more than just "allow remote starts and send maintenance alerts", it's the entire telematics system. The article details angry people and them trying to hack their way into freely giving away their data without any control. Insanity.

Recording everything all the time by anonymous corporations or people is called stalking. But by sitting in the car, you've apparently agreed to a whole set of legalese that allows them to stalk you and sell your data to anyone, anywhere, and forever. If this is the case, then make the cars free to "buy". If I'm going to pay $20,000 or more for a car, I want it offline, zero data collection. Only the minimum for operations should be recorded, on-board, and viewable by the owner...can you say OBDII?

Just one more reason why I don't have a car.