I Spy

Turns out you’ve been driving in the data fast lane. 

Photo: metamorworks / Shutterstock.com (Shutterstock

I Spy, the clever tv show running in the mid 60's, starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, was stylish and very cool, channelling James Bond but with less polish, was a standby for yours truly to watch as action and Sci Fi flicks are and were staples for this rube to view for as long as I can remember. When thinking about I Spy and similar content to peruse, one finds cars always play a huge part as going mobile was, and is, a fact of life of modern civilization as we move further into the 21st century. Be as it may, the car, the perceived refuge of privacy and anonymity, is no longer as they are now rolling computer platforms, equipped with the newest tech, able to snoop on us whenever we get into said vehicle.

To whit ...

Bad news: your car is a spy. If your vehicle was made in the last few years, you’re probably driving around in a data-harvesting machine that may collect personal information as sensitive as your race, weight, and sexual activity. Volkswagen’s cars reportedly know if you’re fastening your seatbelt and how hard you hit the brakes.

That’s according to new findings from Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included project. The nonprofit found that every major car brand fails to adhere to the most basic privacy and security standards in new internet-connected models, and all 25 of the brands Mozilla examined flunked the organization’s test. Mozilla found brands including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, and Subaru collect data about drivers including race, facial expressions, weight, health information, and where you drive. Some of the cars tested collected data you wouldn’t expect your car to know about, including details about sexual activity, race, and immigration status, according to Mozilla.

Dirty laundry applies.

“Many people think of their car as a private space — somewhere to call your doctor, have a personal conversation with your kid on the way to school, cry your eyes out over a break-up, or drive places you might not want the world to know about,” said Jen Caltrider, program direction of the *Privacy Not Included project, in a press release. “But that perception no longer matches reality. All new cars today are privacy nightmares on wheels that collect huge amounts of personal information.”

Modern cars use a variety of data harvesting tools including microphones, cameras, and the phones drivers connect to their cars. Manufacturers also collect data through their apps and websites, and can then sell or share that data with third parties.

Combine this with the fact Google now has the "right" to take all data published on the net and feed it to Bard and company in order to make their AI variants able to "serve us better" sounds like Black Mirror to me.

 

Remember, it's all about the money.

PS, Yours truly tools around in a 2005 Ford 150, a vehicle promising privacy as long as I don't carry a cell phone to keep in contact with a most uncertain world. :)