I wanted to get others’ takes but it seems like the only real way to get a non-spying car is to get an older car without any sort of telemetrics. I saw a video about different car companies’ security policies, well specifically the new Mental Outlaw video, and it just blew me away how even our cars aren’t safe. Anyone got tips for how to anonymize their car?

  • deranger@sh.itjust.works
    106·
    4 months ago

    Let me try this comment again.

    There is no driving with privacy or anonymity unless you’re on private land.

    Anyone got tips for how to anonymize their car?

    Remove the license plate. You will rarely have privacy driving a car on a public road. You should disable the modem, of course, but you’re still not going to be driving anonymously or privately. Automated license plate readers means your travels are going into databases that very well could be breached at some point in time.

    Law enforcement use of ALPRs is rapidly expanding, with tens of thousands of readers in use throughout the United States; one survey indicates that in 2016 and 2017 alone, 173 law enforcement agencies collectively scanned 2.5 billion license plates.

    According to the latest available numbers from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, 93 percent of police departments in cities with populations of 1 million or more use their own ALPR systems, some of which can scan nearly 2,000 license plates per minute. In cities with populations of 100,000 or more, 75 percent of police departments use ALPR systems.

    Despite this expansive data collection effort, many departments have not developed a policy to govern the use of ALPR technology, or provided privacy protections.

    https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/automatic-license-plate-readers-legal-status-and-policy-recommendations

    • radau@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      Adding to this, automatic plate flippers exist and are pretty popular for show cars to display something else when parked. Typically wired to ignition so it shows your plate only when the cars running.

      Issue is if you street park dependent on the state, if the vehicle registration is hidden by the plate being flipped they can likely tow it. Would work great for at work/in your driveway though. Could maybe just have a bypass switch for if you need to park somewhere and display the plate.

      Still a pain in the ass that it’s this bad though.

      • krolden@lemmy.ml
        4·
        4 months ago

        Theyre also recording the make model car type car size etc so you’re still not immune from fingerprinting

    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
      3·
      4 months ago

      The fact that your data is exposed to someone doesn’t mean that you have to give up and just let everyone else have it as well.

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        4 months ago

        That’s not the point I’m making. You should disable your cars modem if it has one, but you still should have no expectation of privacy. Thinking you can have anonymity with a license plate displayed to everyone is foolish. It’s like asking how to be anonymous while wearing a name tag and the same clothes every day.

    • smeeps@lemmy.mtate.me.uk
      1·
      4 months ago

      I don’t entirely agree with this: I know there are no ANPR cameras within my town for example. There’s a speed camera that only takes photos if you’re speeding, but ANPR cameras are limited to motorways and trunk roads, I can move around my town and the surrounding ones without clocking ANPR. Of course I’m still on regular CCTV and cell towers triangulate my phone, but that requires authorities actively looking into me which I doubt they are.

      I tend to use an eBike where possible but again the phone triangulates if I have it on me, and it wouldn’t be too hard to follow on cctv if you really wanted to. Everyone and their mother has a doorbell camera now