Israeli companies have developed and are selling advanced cyber tools that can hack into the tech of your car and use it to collect intelligence on you.
Three years ago, Haaretz revealed the existence of the offensive cyber intelligence company Toka, which was co-founded by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and a former Israel Defense Forces cyber chief, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yaron Rosen. The firm specialized in hacking into security cameras, but as documents obtained by Haaretz at the time revealed, Toka also had a product called CARINT that fused camera data with data linked to cars.
At the time, the industry was in its infancy. But industry sources say that Toka has since expanded its offering on cars. It has developed and even sold a product capable of hacking into a specific vehicle’s multimedia systems, pinpointing its location and tracking its movements; that is, a specific model by a specific manufacturer. The technology can even remotely access the microphone of the vehicle’s hands-free system, allowing eavesdropping on the driver, and even tap into cameras installed on the dashboard or around the car.
If you connect your car to your phone, the police can get into your phone, without a warrant, without much effort, without you knowing. They can see pretty much everything. Something about an old supreme court decision from a hundred years back, cars are mobile so they can’t get warrants, and our dishonorable supreme court naturally endorsed dishonoring the 4th amendment to give police more power. I think this is the article, from a couple of years back or something if so: https://theintercept.com/2021/05/03/car-surveillance-berla-msab-cbp/
We have eCall in the EU so that lads from Brussels can spy on us in our cars.
Can we disable these cameras and microphones at least? I can’t imagine people would have stood for this level of surveillance and control a few generations back. Something is fundamentally wrong with us, I seriously think some systematic pollutant is making us more docile and trusting. Not just taxoplasmosis which could infect up to 30% of the population and does inhibit the fear center, spread between cats and rodents the rodents that get it lose their fear of cats. But all mammals can get it. Spread through feces.
Fuck cars. I’m car free and glad to be. My bike doesn’t spy on me. And I don’t really fancy getting an e-bike that requires an app just to work. The only thing spying on me is my Android phone.
They are forcing my phone to be the key to everything, including my email. So if I lose my phone, or my service, I’m locked out of everything. If the phone isn’t charging I’ve no way to communicate. Emails main use for me is an insurance to communicate if need be, forcing seemingly random verifications to my phone is a dealbreaker. I dropped all other emails outside a new one that doesn’t do that.
But it’s everything, they want it to be the key to your car, to your house even. Metal keys work, it’s a time tested method of locking things, and more secure than a digital lock. Just as passwords work. If you want to set up a phone as security, go ahead, forcing us to do it isn’t about safety though, it’s about forcing us to give them commercially valuable information under false pretenses, and we all know it. They think we don’t have a choice because they all engaged in a shit trust, all agreeing to not compete and instead change in ways to hurt us that make them more money.
100%. If you can bike, that’s both good for your health, AND reduces surveillance.
We need to push for better bikability especially here in North America. Fortunately my city is good, but so many others are not. Especially for older people who may not be comfortable mixing it up with cars if they bike.
Of course also now Flock cameras are everywhere, who watch bikes as well as cars. There is no plate on a bicycle, but I have seen allegations they can perform biometric ID of pedestrians and cyclists.
Those Silicon Valley based bikes that you rent with an app, pick up when you see it, leave it where your destination is, do have cameras and microphones on them I believe, and gps. They totally do spy on you, and by extension your phone, which it turns out is a terrible gossip.
Crazy Ehud Barak the same guy who allegedly trained Epstein as a Mossad spy and lived with him for five years? What a coincidence
Lived with him for 5 years? That is the first I’m hearing of that, do you recall where you learned that bit? I did just see an article I’m going to read soon that Israel’s government set up Eptein’s manhattan penthouse with hidden cameras and microphones. As if we needed more proof he was a honeypot to ensnare lawmakers, business leaders, and the aristocracy in compromising situations. This is just one operation too, we don’t even know what else they have been up to, I bet they have financial misdealings on the majority of lawmakers.
Don’t use Waze.
…or any app based GPS at that point.
I had no idea I’ll remove it immediately
When my car’s radio system completely busted over a year ago, I wasn’t in a rush to replace it. To replace it with the same original radio would’ve cost over $3000. Meanwhile, all the car radios I saw in stores were touch screen - I refuse to buy those. So I’ve simply gone without.
But the radio/infotainment was connected to other systems, including the back-up camera and clock. I can’t change the time and I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up. I take some solace in knowing that despite those minor set-backs, at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch.
at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch
I feel your pain. It’s nearly impossible now to buy a disconnected car, and over time, pre-connectivity cars will become old and less reliable.
I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up.
Which is getting harder on some models of hatchback where it’s difficult to see out the rear window. My car is like that. My old car was a 4 dr sedan and you could easily see behind. In my new car I would not feel safe backing up without the camera due to how bad the rear visibility is. Especially in parking lots with the risk that a child below window level had run out from somewhere into my blind spot. That’s what keeps me tethered to my backup camera - the fear of hitting another person I couldn’t see. Otherwise I would do exactly what you are doing.
I bike whenever I can, but sometimes, I must drive.
Another problem is that on some newer cars, the “little snitch” part of the car is the same subsystem as other features of the car you need, like the directional blinkers. You rip out the snitching part, and you also lose safety features you need legally and ethically.
I hate this. All of this. I hate that the default for so many devices now, not just cars, is surveillance.
I know it’s nontrivial, but kit cars are a thing. If they won’t make the car you want, build it.
Please verify the process to make it street legal before buying the kit, though. Don’t want to end up with a car-sized paperweight.
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Every day I feel more justified in keeping my 1990s car running.
(I’d also like to walk or take public transit, but the infrastructure here is car dependent)
Archive link?
Not sure what you did but the page couldn’t be reached
weird, try changing archive.is to archive.md or archive.today. /latest/{url} redirects to the latest for that url, and /{url} redirects to the list of captures for that url
My 2007 Tundra? I think not.
That’s why I’m driving in a shitbox! Not that I’m poor…
This is why you should switch to ebikes if you can, it’s better for the environment and they don’t track you.
Ebike isn’t gonna take me 500 miles a week on the interstate
Stop being a bad person
I don’t know how
If it’s those pay-per-ride city bikes, then you bet your ass they are tracked.
Of course they are! Do you think that the city or state will just let people take them wherever and expect to get it back? It’s not exactly running on the honor system. I’ve seen loads of people just take them to sell them for parts. All of those chips inside of them. And there are ways to hack them so they aren’t connected to the software they were originally powered to be on. If somebody wants to make money, they’ll go the distance.
If you use one of those regularly just buy an ebike. Doesn’t take that long for the cost of those ultra short term rental apps to exceed buying your own.
I love my dumb ebike. It’s so much easier to maintain and I know what all the technology does.
I wonder if they can hack into millions of cellphones and get them to self detonate using the battery as the explosive material? Is that possible, just wipe out out millions of people just like that? If they could they would.
Likely not. The beeper terrorist attack had a special explosive planted. Phone batteries can overheat but not explode rapidly.
Now as for car batteries I’m not sure. Maybe they can make them explode or catch fire while locking the car doors.
It wasn’t a special explosive. It was a specially modified battery. They made the battery explode. Because it was a battery, it could not be detected
You don’t need to worry about that, lead acid is a really stable and safe battery. If you wanna get a handful of extra years out of your batteries, buy the ones with removable caps and keep the water topped up.
If they weren’t so heavy and energy sparse they’d be great for all kinds of stuff.
Or it can cause the car to get out of control and crash, assassination perfectly looking like an accident.
Are we planning to assassinate somebody? With a car battery? And if you want the car to veer off course, then it’s the brake pedal you’ll want removed. But in newer cars there’s a function that if you take your foot off the gas pedal it’ll just slow down like you’re braking. And there’s this one car that if somebody is having a stroke while they’re driving it’ll go autopilot mode and pull to the curb and call for emergency assistance. I saw it at this automobile convention that I went to last year. The North American International Auto Show in Detroit, up by Huntington Place, I think. It was amazing. Never really been into cars, but I went anyway.
No, it’s not possible, at most they could cause the battery to overheat and either expand or “explode” just enough so you notice it and take the phone out of your pocket without causing any harm.
As for cars, there’s potentially enough energy in there for a real explosion.
Good thing i have an old car.
Now’s a good time to remove any sim cards attached to your vehicle/infotainment center. They can track it as easily as cell phones.
It will store data locally and upload it when you take it to the mechanic. You have to neuter the sensors
The sim just holds your subscriber number. I would assume any car with any ability to reach the outside world to be vulnerable, whether it has a sim in it or not, and regardless of whether that connection’s with a cellular radio, WiFi, satellite or other
