Everybody is aware of how invasive smartphone data collection is, and many know how to limit it. But very few people realise that their car is doing the same thing – sometimes even more aggressively – and with fewer legal safeguards than mobile devices.
Inside, your car is a sensor farm. GPS saves your every move, cameras record facial expressions, microphones can listen in to phone calls, accelerometers record behavioural metrics, and the infotainment system stores everything from your phone. It’s a goldmine for third parties. The features that make the driving experience safer and slicker also pipe personal data to manufacturers, insurance companies, marketers and data brokers. The Mozilla Foundation even called cars the worst product category for privacy reporting that all 25 of 25 major car brands failed basic privacy tests – and some even admitted sharing data with marketing partners without additional consent.
Here’s what’s happening, and what you can do about it.
Let’s not lose touch…Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Exposé to serve their own needs. Subscribe to our emails now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox…
What Your Car Quietly Collects
Some of the data harvested by your vehicle makes sense, such as GPS data for navigation or tyre pressure monitoring for safety. Other tools keep you in lane, call emergency services, and prevent collisions, but also generate rich datasets about where you go, how you drive, and even who’s in the cabin. Precise location history, in-car microphone recordings, and driving behaviour are stored and transmitted to manufacturers, and third-party brokers. Most of this is buried in default settings and app permissions, masked as convenient connectivity to users.
All of this was approved through the Biden Infrastructure Bill in 2021, along with the infamous vehicle “Kill Switch” that can shut down the vehicle remotely. That, too, is still in play.
You can check exactly what data is collected by your vehicle using websites such as Privacy4Cars or VehiclePrivacyReport.
You Can Restrict It – But There’s a Catch
Car makers can share or sell driving data and in-car collections for analytics, insurance pricing, advertising, and product development. While it’s possible to toggle certain sharing in vehicle menus, disabling some analytics also restrict features that drivers actually want such as live traffic or emergency calling options. Regaining privacy often means giving up conveniences you already paid for.
Infotainment platforms and connected services may also have their own pipelines and policies too. The end result is a confusing patchwork where opt-outs in one place don’t necessarily carry over, and ultimate privacy can be hard to achieve.
Why Is It Legal?
The Supreme Court in the US did rule that GPS tracking of a vehicle constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, which means that law enforcement must get a warrant before tracking your car. But, amazingly, that ruling only applies to government surveillance. Corporate data collection by private companies, including car makers and insurance companies, aren’t bound by the same constitutional limits.
So, while the police need a warrant, entities profiting from your data do not. Accepting the terms and conditions at the dealership or when first using the car’s infotainment system means you’ve probably already consented to it, too.
How Cars are More Invasive Than Phones
Smartphones collect location, Bluetooth beacons, and in-app events that can be linked to advertising ID or user accounts. App permissions, OS prompts and platform rules give tyou some visibility and control, and you can set location settings to Only While Using, revoke background access, and reset advertising IDs. But car data settings are more opaque and much trickier to navigate, with controls scattered between the dealer, the manufacturer, companion apps and more.
Many people expect their phones to track them and have learned to simply manage those settings, which often come with clearer guidelines on when something is and is not actively monitoring their activity. Generally, people do not expect their cars to create a profile that is just as valuable – and in some cases even more actionable – for third parties.
They Say You Can Opt Out, But It’s Not Always True
Turning off location services or clicking to opt out does not necessarily mean you’re in the clear. Independent research and investigative journalists have found that some connected vehicles continue to transmit telemetry for diagnostics, safety updates, or “system performance” even when privacy settings are disabled.
And because the manufacturers control the software, there’s no public way to check what’s really being sent in the background. For many drivers, the only option is to trust the manufacturer’s promise – something that Mozilla’s 2023 report tells us is unwise given that every tested car brand failed basic privacy checks.
In short, some brands’ default settings mean that the only true fix is choosing a different car.
Final Thought
Analytics can save lives when the vehicle spots a crash, routes drivers around storms, or highlights a mechanical failure in the car. But it crosses into profitable surveillance when the same hardware also feeds businesses that create driver profiles, tailor prices, and targets individuals without clear consent. Privacy needs to be treated like a core safety feature too. Take time to audit your settings, restrict app access, wipe your data before service or sale, and make sure you know what will be recorded and sold before you buy your next car.
Join the Conversation
Did you know how invasive car data collection can be? Have you checked settings in your own car? What else is tracking us without our knowledge? Most of us are so focused on phone tracking that we forget what else is profiling us. Add your thoughts below.
The Expose Urgently Needs Your Help…
Can you please help to keep the lights on with The Expose’s honest, reliable, powerful and truthful journalism?
Your Government & Big Tech organisations
try to silence & shut down The Expose.
So we need your help to ensure
we can continue to bring you the
facts the mainstream refuses to.
The government does not fund us
to publish lies and propaganda on their
behalf like the Mainstream Media.
Instead, we rely solely on your support. So
please support us in our efforts to bring
you honest, reliable, investigative journalism
today. It’s secure, quick and easy.
Please choose your preferred method below to show your support.
Categories: Did You Know?
There can be a good side, in that if someone causes a collision to occur the data can be used like a black box in an aircraft.
the worst downside is that even though police need a warrant to track you, it only takes a little, or big lie to a judge, to obtain the warrant, so makes no difference if you are innocent.
I opted out on my 2024 Toyota Prius and as a result don’t have the built in mapping navigation. Also the phone APP Toyota Connect is unusable without opting in. I am reluctant to remove the Cellular Module in the car so Toyota still has remote access including being able to disable my car remotely. I have wrapped copper tape on my shark fin antenna and covered it with black tape. This will reduce their reception. The car’s AM/FM radio antenna is built into the rear windshield
I opted out on my 2024 Toyota Prius and as a result don’t have the built in mapping navigation. Also the phone APP Toyota Connect is unusable without opting in. I am reluctant to remove the Cellular Module in the car so Toyota still has remote access including being able to disable my car remotely. I have wrapped copper tape on my shark fin antenna and covered it with black tape. This will reduce their reception. The car’s AM/FM radio antenna is built into the rear windshield
I’m so glad that you are awake to these things.
Could it be that all modern day cars (since when, I don’t know) have been assembled with remotely controlled detonators?
I absolutely hate all modern cars. My first car was a Mk1 Ford Escort, I understood pretty much every part of that car-I could mend everything in it.
As for the Hyundai I presently own (a 2017- i30 crdi estate) it is so full of gadgetry-needing laptops to diagnose faults.
Progress????
I am finally going to replace, are you ready for this … 2001 forest green Honda Civic E with a beige interior and sun roof, original owner and a September left over in 2001. It was purchased right before 9/11 happened. Everything works air conditioning heating etc.. The years rolled by with no accidents and no issues. It looks like new inside and out and garaged when not in use.
It got by state inspection this past September. It has 240K miles on it. Never had a problem with it. Just changed the fluids, filters, new tires now and then and a battery replacement. I’d keep it longer BUT the catalytic converted has a tiny hole in it and the right front censor needs to be replaced. It is not noisy but will get worse over time. I could replace that for 1K and the right front censors for $75. but the mileage is getting up there.
I am not enthused at all at some of the cars I have looked at. I don’t want the car making my decisions as a driver etc.. I have stopped looking but will resume looking in the spring. I’ll probably wind up with a Honda FIT.
I hate letting that care go. I has been very good to me and has history with it.
My orange tabby, Charlie liked to sit on top of the roof, shaded by a tree. It as like his throne. RIP amazing Charlie. We have had other pets but Charlie was extraordinary.
“You will own nothing and be happy”
“They” are deadly serious about this. Covid Plan-demic injected you with poison and our Govt. has the legal right to kill you. That’s not an exaggeration. The govt over the years has legalized the right to kill you. See the excellent work of Katherine Watt. (https://bailiwicknews.substack.com/p/orientation-for-new-readers)
David Webb exposed “The Great Taking” where you have ZERO ownership of the Stocks and Bonds you’ve purchased over a lifetime.
ZERO! A global financial collapse all but imminent. We’re being traced and tracked by everything we come in contact with.
Jesus, You’d thing I’m some paranoid nutbag. But it’s all true. We live in the most dystopian time in history.
You might be but I’m not being tracked as I don’t have a mobile phone and my 2008 car has little in the way of connectivity unless I take it for a service and they connect it with a wire.
Not just using multiple Car ID but also UK traffic Lights are now the scanning ID data acquisition centres.
AGD, Yunex traffic management systems at most UK traffic lights all use Lidar-Laser-Radar with some using Class 4 lethal illegal laser diodes and 24Ghz radar to extract ID data from the car inclusive of facial recognition.
“Blade runners” as the headache of Transport for London obtained traffic Crossings equipment identified as using Siemens Osram Orlon Black class 3b-4 laser diodes. (Military Grade lasers used to scan drivers and pedestrians in Civilian traffic equipment?
https://ams-osram.com/products/product-families/oslon-black
The 6 Combined Authorities fund Fusion Traffic Management Systems that do not allow Public Consultation.
SensiD
“SensID is a cloud hosted software solution that provides web-based access to travel time signal timing tools, and performance metrics based on anonymized Bluetooth and Wi-Fi MAC records collected by FlexControl card
(i.e.APCC) or FlexControl Module devices at traffic intersections or other data collection points.
The FlexControl Card or FlexControI Module forwards the anonymized MAC records to a remote SensID via SNAPS. SensID manages the collection, processing, and storage of the anonymized MAC records as well as the creation of the FlexControl Card or FlexControl Module devices and vehicle route.”
https://johnblundell.substack.com/p/the-6-combined-authorities-fund-fusion
These personally invasive Fusion Smart Management Systems used throughout the U.S, UK, and Europe, and the World are using MAC ID data acquisition.
MAC Media Access Control Address
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
All efforts obfuscated, ignored, and cancelled!
Detail;
https://open.substack.com/pub/johnblundell/p/fusion-smart-traffic-management-systems?r=3fft71&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://x.com/jsblundell/status/1992689568123105451?s=20
Tartaria era steam water pumps London https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/jiB_jWBtVVs
GPS kill switches
Any idea how old the vehicle needs to be to avoid all this nonsense?
My 2001 Honda had NONE of it and why I hate having to replace it. See my reply above.
🙏🙏
What the Holy Bible says of this horrific decade just ahead of us.. Here’s a site expounding current global events in the light of bible prophecy.. To understand more, pls visit 👇 https://bibleprophecyinaction.blogspot.com/
We are seeing prophecy happen right before our eyes.
“Peace, peace, when there is no peace”
is found in Jeremiah 6:14.
The lawlessness out there is undeniable.
CBDC digital currency is on the way.
Welcome to the Big Brother surveillance state, whether you want it or not.