this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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Privacy

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How to get a private car (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Hello internet users. Someone in my family is looking to buy a car and wanted some recommendations for a private one. They are looking to buy new, and need Android Auto and CarPlay. I know all new cars suck for privacy by default, but I was hoping someone here could offer some insight as to which cars can be made better and what cars offer the best experience with minimal compromises on privacy and no subscription bs. I also have a Home Assistant instance that they can access remotely if there are any cars that can work well with that.

Edit: Android auto and CarPlay aren't as important as I thought.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Unlikely to find a new car without a calling home function.

Definitely not one with car play.

Best you can do is find the cell antenna port and put an RF sink on it (they're used for testing radio output).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tell me more about this rf sink

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

The technical term is "dummy load", most antennas are around 50ohm "impedance" which in an incredibly roundabout way means the antenna is indistinguishable from a 50ohm resistor at whatever frequency it's tuned to....which means you can replace the antenna with a 50ohm resistor.

This all assumes you care about leaving the radio functional (radio amplifiers will burn up if they can't dissipate the energy they're creating) and in most cases it's probably fine to just cut the trace as close to the source chip as possible. That said, if the system is especially evil and well engineered it'll throw errors in some cases so better to leave everything functional but unable to hear or transmit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Just buy a used car. Look for low KM and good climate rating.

Why care for privacy when in the end your using android auto or apple play?

And a home assistant breaks the point even further.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago

Not a home assistant. Home Assistant™, the open source privacy focused home automation system.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

As I said, it is for a family member. I agree about buying used.

I think android auto can be reasonably private with Graphene OS's implementation.

I don't know what you are saying about Home Assistant.

Edit: Home Assistant

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

sorry. Didnt know what home assistant was.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I bought a 2015 Dacia. It's just smart enough that it let's you connect a device through Bluetooth, however it's not smart in any other way. It's barely got kilometers (sub 1k) and will last me a while.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, but I have bad news for you. Privacy in major car brands no longer exists.

You don't say where your family member lives, but you might look into smaller regional brands that focus on cheap cars for less overdeveloped areas of the world. Be aware the tradeoff is probably in safety features.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

There are things you can do though.

GM for example you cannot remove OnStar from their vehicles. But with my Subaru removing the starlink module was a ~20 minute procedure. You'll need an aftermarket harness in order to maintain the front speakers.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What country are you in? Apparently, all carmakers are really bad about privacy right now, but Renault seems to be the best of the bunch: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/t

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Your link is bad (accidentally added t at the end), here is a working one.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

And, holy fucking shit, I had no idea it was this bad. Thank goodness my car was built in 1987.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Android Auto and CarPlay or Privacy. You won't get both.

Your use of 'need' is quite a stretch.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

You could always simply not use android auto or carplay? Surely that would be a start.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

When you go just ask if there's cars or models without the car itself having a SIM card but that still has carplay. People love to drum this stuff up but they still make dumb cars. There's usually like 3 variations maybe 4 of each model. Go lower on the model to get less features but still the right amount of them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

in the eu all newer models are required to be able to call emergency services in case of a crash and share the location of the vehicle. so no newer cars in the eu without an integrated sim card.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't have a great answer to your question, but you might be able to find a relatively cheap car that isn't "smart" and doesn't have a touchscreen or anything. Do they make those anymore? Then, you could add an aftermarket stereo receiver to it, like some of the options in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1GdI9UsEI

Yes, that's still a "smart" stereo but it's NOT connected to any of the car manufacturer's metrics or systems, right? So the separation makes it seem more privacy-friendly to me. I could be thinking about this incorrectly, but it seems logical to me. There might be some stereo receivers that are more private than others, but you'd have to do your own research for that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Do you know of new cars that don't have all the smart nonsense?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Damn, I'm looking around and don't see any, even the cheapest Toyotas and Kias have a big touchscreen with Android and CarPlay. I'm not sure what happens if you take that out and replace it with an aftermarket receiver, but it appears to be possible because Crutchfield sells receivers for a 2024 Corolla: https://www.crutchfield.com/g_473950/Digital-Multimedia-Video-Receivers.html

I'm also seeing people online saying that there are cars made for businesses that still come with no "smart" features. But I have no clue how you would buy one of those, I doubt they have them at dealerships: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatcarshouldIbuy/comments/124n5qw/what_cars_less_than_5_years_old_are_recommended/

Or, you could just get a used car, save some money, and check all the low-tech boxes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I think the mitsubishi space star could be an answer, base model doesn't have a smart anything, but it might not be available where you are

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=4t1GdI9UsEI

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

They are looking to buy new, and need Android Auto and CarPlay

I was active on an automotive forum around the time when that sort of thing started to be seen as a "need" by car salesmen and some of their more enthusiastic customers. The big new thing was "infotainment" and it seemed like the whole industry was insisting we'd all soon see how essential this stuff was. I was disdainful of the idea then, and have only become more so. Cars should have an AM/FM radio receiver, and aside from lights and a horn that's all they need for communications.

That's not the answer you're looking for, but it seems reasonably on-topic here. If you must get a new car, the easiest route to having it not spy on you as much as it can all the time is to make sure it doesn't have a SIM card (or remove the one it does have) and never connect your phone to it in any way except perhaps via a 3.5mm audio jack.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't understand why everyone seems to be latching on to carplay and android auto in this thread as if it's the car stealing your data. All carplay and android auto do is take a video feed from your phone an display it on the car's screen. You still have the privacy issues, but it's not the car doing anything, they're the same as if you had a dumb car and google maps up on your phone in a phone mount.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Most are missing the point. You’re right, running AA or CP is akin to just using your phone with a vent mount, albeit arguably safer. The privacy issues come with things like OnStar and similar services that connect back to the manufacturer. As someone already pointed out it doesn’t sound like there’s a way to remove OnStar, but some others might be removeable, or not available in cheaper models.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Your faith in the safety of allowing your car and your phone the opportunity to share data with each other is touching, but until I see the source code I will remain unconvinced that it isn't a bad idea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

In most cars the telemetry data is stored in a separate computer outside of your head unit. There's minimal communication between the head unit and the telemetry box. In the case of my Subaru there's 0 communication, the telematics box just does or doesn't pass audio to the front speakers. You can also read through the documentation on Carplay and AA. Last I saw there was nothing that allows for any real communication between your head unit and the phone outside of the audio and video signal. Carplay 2 may change things

Being paranoid for paranoia's sake isn't productive. All it does is scare off people who may be interested but aren't willing to cut out every single convenience from their lives.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Bluetooth connection is a must too, but it doesn't need to access my contacts. Just as a music player or headset.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Would love some info on where all this shit is located in the car. Someone should make a database of the different cars and how to block shit

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm just leaving a comment here because if there is a positive answer to this, I also want to know. I think we're just hosed as far as cars go.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't Lemmy let you save posts or is that just my client?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Well, I'm one of today's lucky 10000 I guess. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Dacia, least bad one. Made a dedicated phone for the car without personal info as well. Rooted calyx OS , microG, organic maps and spottube. No simcard and VPN on WiFi. Not sure how much is still leaked but a lot better at least.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Find a old car that doesn't have a lot of miles. Its not the best deal but it will work.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Couldn't you ask the guys at the dealership to remove the router and such from the car? Say you don't want internet. If so, I'd say that's the best you'd get in terms of new cars.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The average salesman will act like they know but they don't. About the only choice for a private vehicle is going to be an older vehicle. New ones are getting less private and larger and more expensive. Go with an older but we'll cared for Honda or Toyota.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

If you want an actual dumb car that’s reliable, I don’t think anything beats a TJ series Jeep wrangler. Not good gas mileage, but the I6 engine in them is fantastic and it’s still relatively easy to get parts for them despite being 20 years old. You can add an after market head unit for CarPlay out android auto.

If you really do go new, you can disable the cellular radio. It’ll cost you a lot of convenience features, and you won’t get updates. But no cell radio, no ability for it to give your data to the mothership.

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