Depending on the car you might be able to physically disable telemetry. Here are some thoughts/ideas I’ve been collecting:
- Hit “SOS” button and opt-out of all services through customer service. This of course requires trusting the company to actually do it.
- It’s possible that the info could be stored locally and then uploaded when it gets serviced though
- Remove the fuse to the modem/data communication module (DCM)
- Disconnect wiring to the LTE antennas
- A number of people have mentioned that they can get the dealer to disconnect the telemetry as a precondition to buying. For instance, here.
- Jump the data communication module (DCM) cable with a ~$70 dongle to bypass just the telematics components
- Disconnect the DCM cable, which will likely gimp the infotainment if not other systems, or remove the entire DCM unit
I’m very skeptical that this “model poisoning” approach will work in practice. To pull it off would require a very high level of coordination among disparate people generating the training data (the images/text). I just can’t imagine it happening. Add to that: big tech has A LOT of resources to play this cat & mouse game.
I hope I’m wrong, but I predict big tech wins here.
I hear what you’re saying and it makes sense. But I do not believe that my particular case was one of priming/manipulation/freq bias. The topic of conversation was too uncharacteristic, too random, and there were too many similar ads within moments. It was either a colossal coincidence or a breach in privacy.
I suppose it doesn’t matter. My phone is much more locked down now.
Something on stock Android phones is always listening though. I had a similar experience as OP where I had an IRL conversation once with my son about a product I don’t normally talk about. My phone was unused & “asleep” nearby. An hour later at work I was inundated with ads for said product all over the internet in my Chrome browser on my work computer. It was way too heavy handed to be a coincidence. The phone had listened to our conversation.
(That day marked the first on my journey to de-Google and take serious steps preserve my privacy online)
Surprised the rates of adblocking is so high! I thought it was a little more niche.
Also surprised that the article didn’t mention manifest v3 rolling out later this year to Chrimium-based browsers - which will effectively end adblocking in all browsers except Firefox.
Google isn’t stupid, they know that ad blocking undermines their business. And Google controls Chromium: the backbone of almost all browsers. So of course they’re going to engineer it to prevent ad blocking. It was only a matter of time.
I love the idea! $8.99 per month is a bit steep…
EDIT: Thinking more about the price, Mozilla is mostly funded by Google but this is a blatantly anti-advertising/anti-Google move. Mozilla must be trying to establish a new revenue stream to get themselves independent of Google. It’s a balls-y move!
If I’m correct in that thinking it does help justify the cost and put it in context.
Congratulations! That’s awesome! I’ve been Google-free for 2-3 years, but I haven’t been brave enough to finally delete Gmail. I keep worrying I might need the message history one day?
Regarding Maps: I use OrganicMaps as my main, & I reflex to Gmaps WV when something isn’t in OrganicMaps. I feel this is a reasonable privacy-friendly compromise.
TrackerControl gives app-level control. It’s FOSS & available on F-droid.
Give Nuclear a try
Oh, it looked Ok in my app (Voyager). But I added the line break.