New research reveals serious privacy flaws in the data practices of new internet connected cars in Australia. It’s yet another reason why we need urgent reform of privacy laws.
Modern cars are increasingly equipped with internet-enabled features. Your “connected car” might automatically detect an accident and call emergency services, or send a notification if a child is left in the back seat.
But connected cars are also sophisticated surveillance devices. The data they collect can create a highly revealing picture of each driver. If this data is misused, it can result in privacy and security threats.
A report published today analysed the privacy terms from 15 of the most popular new car brands that sell connected cars in Australia.
This analysis uncovered concerning practices. There are enormous obstacles for consumers who want to find and understand the privacy terms. Some brands also make inaccurate claims that certain information is not “personal information”, implying the Privacy Act doesn’t apply to that data.
Some companies are also repurposing personal information for “marketing” or “research”, and sharing data with third parties.
Anything of note that Mozilla didn’t already cover? https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/
You gotta love that there are benchmark for that… The company that can’t even get free, right.
I really like their Amazon reviews thing that they bought… I bet the shady dude that had all the fucking people finder sites was in charge of that cause it’s got the same kind of fucking cheesy-graphic-load-screen… basically, the only functional piece of software they had at that point cause they hadn’t touched it, and then they went an AIed it up…
Here’s a new idea, why doesn’t everybody in the fediverse post their favorite privacy enhanced Firefox rebrand:
I’m really confused by your comment and it seems like you’re assuming everyone knows what you’re talking about already. Could you provide some context?
What about “Free” are they getting wrong? (I’m assuming you’re talking about Mozilla here?).
What Amazon reviews thing? Who was this “shady dude”, what did he do that was so “shady”, and how does that relate to Some Amazon review thing if you’re not even sure that he was behind it to begin with?
What does “Aled it up” mean?
Sorry… busy day and I’m going to need a real computer for this 😅
RE Free… nothing really, just being bitter. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of the little tie-ins like Pocket, but I respect the hustle… if not the business plan.
The Amazon review thing they bought is Fakespot™, check it out if you shop on Amazon. Here the Ai nonsense is just some summaries of the reviews it digested… not inherently bad, but the whole experience is painfully slow. Still. Well worth checking out if you haven’t.
Shady dude gets a 📌 for now. Sorry. Time.
If you check out Fakespot you can’t miss it. Have yet to try the browser integration, although I have enabled it for some reason…  
I dislike the way you type.
The Amazon reviews thing I assume is referring to Fakespot, which Mozilla bought some time ago.
But I’m confused about their “AI’ed it up” comment because from the very beginning Fakespot was using ML to determine the tone of reviews and whether or not they were lying about the product/paid reviews by the seller.
Just griping a bit about what’s probably more of a design/branding change than anything.
I think fakespot is promising tech that we desperately need more of.
Can’t hurt to have it in their hands, hope to see more server resources ;-)