Don’t use vehicle integration between your phone and car at all?
Even then, you’re still trusting your phone, though. Unless you’re using something pretty custom like LineageOS, I’d be surprised if there was anything keeping other parties (Google/Apple?) from spying on your phone communications.
Maybe (maybe) there are regulations keeping your carrier from spying on the contents of your texts. (Maybe.) But (again, unless you’re going the extra mile and using LineageOS with F-Droid and no Google apps or something) I’d be surprised if there was anything keeping your phone’s manufacturer or evil apps from intercepting your messages.
But also, cars have worse issues than that. I just got a Subaru and their EULA says that by riding in or driving a Subaru, I agree to allow Subaru to record any audio in the car and use the audio to train AI and such. Subaru isn’t even the worst privacy offender. See here for more info.
Oh no, Subaru, no. Not like this.
Just read through that whole thing, and now I’m wondering when we’ll start seeing hacking tools to disable certain things, or diy manuals to remove the cabin microphone, etc.
edit: or articles like “how to relocate the microphone under your seat so all they can share are farts”
I pray daily to Saint Louis Rossmann for such tools.
We have that already. It’s called pulling fuses.
That would definitely work, but depending on how everything is connected, something more surgical may be called for if you still want use of some of the equipment you paid for.
edit: I wouldn’t know, my car is over 20 years old.
Even with the fucking wiring diagram, I’m still not sure how to disconnect my goddamn horn from my keyless entry. The horn relay is hooked up to so much shit. (The 2001 doesn’t use a “chirp” with the fob, it uses the whole ass horn.) Both of them. Because naturally there’s two. And they’re both loud as shit. And maybe I want to lock my car without the whole street hearing it. And yes, there’s supposed to be a way to silence it but the particular fobs I got for whatever reason won’t.
I recently burned out my cigarette lighter/DC port in the dash when an inverter apparently spiked higher than it was rated for. (Or maybe the port couldn’t actually handle the watts it was rated for, idk.) Still haven’t figured out if only that needs to be replaced or if something else needs to be instead or in addition to that. Fuses that appear related to it all seem fine, I asked the local dealership and they just shrugged. Wiring diagram doesn’t help. Not motivated enough to deal with it properly now so I just said fuck it and ran an extension cord from the one in the trunk so I can charge my phone. Maybe one day I’ll care enough to track down what actually broke.
It might be the wire? Idk. I only consider it because I blew an extension cord using a space heater in my garage. (Shameful, I know, but I was trying to keep some goddamn tomato plants warm while I was tinkering.) I thought it was rated high enough but ended up tripping the GFCI on the circuit. The heater is fine, outlet was fine, but the extension cord would trip the circuit when I would plug it back in even without the heater attached. I’d probably drive myself mad looking for anything melted if I blew mine in my Subaru. Got a couple dash bulbs burned out and god dammit i don’t want to take the damn thing apart again.
I don’t want to take the damn thing apart again
That’s basically where I am. I had just put it all back together recently after an A/C repair and was like “you’ve got to be kidding me.” I know I have to remove the stereo components and whatnot just to get to the port connector, and that may not even be what burned out, but I won’t know until I try replacing that piece and it still doesn’t work. Could be a different wire between that plug and the fuse box. Arg, one day I’ll care enough to look at it again.
It seems like more and more there is a need for some kind of privacy inclined instructional website to come out like iFixit to tackle such things.
It’s probably going to happen, eventually. Still early in the game but there has to be some Subaru (etc) technicians that are just done with all this in their own vehicles.
In Android at least, you can pair your device and not allow access to texts. Then you can have the phone read/respond, instead of the car.
Still glad I’m rolling my 2000 Honda CRV shitbox with a Sony stereo from 2010 - when Bluetooth streaming to your car was just starting to be a thing. All the cheap plastic things are showing age but at least the thing can’t spy on me.
I have a '84 Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel. That thing will keep running after an EMP. It’ll even keep running when I take the key out (I got a vac system leak somewhere). I’m going to cry when that thing dies. It’s so not fussy either. Radiator instructions: “Try to use clean water.”
Hah. I drove an '85 300D Turbo diesel in the early 2000s. That thing was a fucking tank. I had to eventually get rid of it because the body was rusting apart. The engine still ran, and likely would have until the end of time. I extended the life a bit by bolting metal rails under the seats to keep them from falling through the car into the road.
I had the issue with the engine still running when taking the key out as well. I would have to pop the hood and push on this kill switch thing in order to turn it off. My mechanic was able to fix it, I forget what the issue was though.
I miss that thing.
Yup. That’s the drill. It’s so reliable it won’t stop without direct interference.
Hey, do you recall what it was that was causing it? I’m pretty sure there is a leak in the vac system somewhere because the engine not stopping coincides with the door locks not working.
Yeah, and I’m doing the same thing: popping the hood and hitting that ‘STOP’ switch to kill the fuel supply.
Mine was babied until I got it 6 years ago. I live in a place now that uses lots of road salt. I made a decision at one point: I can’t afford to baby it, so I’m going to drive it to death. I’m going to mourn when it dies. I wish they still make simple cars like that. Ironic it was such a luxury back in the day. Pretty sure I’ve got the original receipt and it was bought for $38 000 in '84.
I actually reached out to my father to ask about this because the machanic was a buddy of his so I thought he might have some info. It was indeed a vac system issue.
I also live in a heavily salted area, so yeah. Rust did the body in before the engine went out. When you finally retire yours, make sure to pop the “Turbo Diesel” decal from the back of it. I still have mine sitting on a desk at my parents house. A nice memento of my many good years in that car.
In order for the car to access your texts you would need to pair the phone via Bluetooth and allow access to them. This is more about older systems from before Apple CarPlay and android’s equivalent where you were stuck with whatever features the car had rather than just letting your phone take over the entertainment system’s interface.
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Yeah, buy a real car lol
