Car is a smartphone on wheels. Here's who's listening
A study of 21 late-model vehicles and 30 companion apps reveals that nearly all tested cars and many apps transmit user data to third-party trackers.
summary is enough The project page provides clear statistics on connected car telemetry, though the full academic paper is forthcoming.
summary
Researchers at Northeastern University and Consumer Reports evaluated 21 late-model vehicles and 30 companion apps to analyze connected-vehicle privacy. They found that 19 of 21 cars contacted third-party tracking domains and 7 apps transmitted sensitive personal identifiers. Pairing a mobile app with a vehicle roughly doubled its exposure to tracking entities. Manufacturers responded by shifting blame to consumers, offering all-or-nothing terms that require giving up smart features to opt out.
key points
- Nineteen out of 21 tested vehicles contacted third-party domains, including known advertising and tracking services, over Wi-Fi.
- Using a manufacturer's companion mobile app roughly doubled a vehicle's exposure to tracking and advertising companies.
- Seven of 30 companion apps transmitted sensitive personal information like VINs, phone numbers, and precise locations directly to third-party trackers.
who should read it
Privacy-conscious engineers, security researchers, and consumers evaluating modern connected vehicles.
discussion skeptical
consensus
Commenters express deep pessimism about widespread consumer surveillance, noting that cars increasingly force all-or-nothing data collection terms. Many suggest avoiding new cars entirely or stripping connectivity to maintain privacy.
pushback
A minority view critiques the study's methodology, noting that some flagged third-party domain contacts simply stem from active infotainment app usage like YouTube.
They only looked at the domains the car talks to over wifi, not to the content. For a Tesla Model 3 they also looked at the mobile traffic, because it was easy doable.
They played around with the infotainment of the car for 30 minutes, when it has for example a YouTube app, they opened it. When the car talked to YouTube over Wifi they counted it as one ATA (Advertising, Tracking, and Analytics).
When you have less apps in the car, or all data is tunneled trough the car manufacturer it results in less ATA and therefore a better score.
The paper says this:
> 2. Stationary Active: The …
It details methodological caveats regarding how active infotainment usage and Wi-Fi traffic were classified as third-party tracking.
Generated by an LLM from the article and thread. Check the sources before relying on it.