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.
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.