A woman in Singapore was jailed after police tapped into her car’s internal infotainment system, nabbing information to prove she was driving over the speed limit. This resulted in the woman spending five days in jail and lost her privilege to drive for two years.
Though the incident happened in 2022, The Straits Times recently reported that ‘the police’s new vehicle forensics capability was revealed at the Police Workplan Seminar 2024 on May 24 at the Singapore University of Technology and Design in Upper Changi Road. The police said they are preparing to roll it out fully in 2024.’
The Star went on to explain the process and what data the police can extract:
The police’s Cybercrime Command received a request from the Traffic Police in late 2022, to extract the data from her vehicle’s infotainment system to investigate a possible speeding offence.
Officers used the tool to extract datasets including call logs, messages and GPS data.
The police said the data confirmed the woman’s identity, and she was prosecuted based on the evidence gathered. She was convicted in January 2023. They declined to reveal further details, including the car’s make and model.
The police added they are developing their capability to extract data from a vehicle’s On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) port.
A proof-of-concept of this was shown at the seminar, demonstrating how telemetry data could be extracted via the port to pinpoint a car’s location, braking and acceleration patterns. The extracted data can then be used to reconstruct a video rendering of the scene to aid investigators.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, a police spokesman said the vehicle forensics capabilities will also apply to other vehicles.
These include motorcycles, as long as the vehicle system can be read or analysed or is compatible with the system the police will be using.
SPF developed the vehicle forensics capability as there are valuable datasets stored in the vehicle including the vehicle infotainment system and OBD port, which would be useful to aid investigations into road traffic incidents.
She said
Extraction of the data can take between several hours and days, depending on the vehicle make and model, she added.
Asked what safeguards there are to protect the privacy of vehicle-users, the spokesman said only authorised officers can extract the vehicle data, and all extracted data will be for the purpose of criminal investigations.
She added SPF will work with the Home Team Science and Technology Agency to enhance its capabilities in response to technological advancements in the automotive industry, such as with electric vehicles.
She said: “The Vehicle Forensics Team will be continually developing the SPF’s vehicle forensics capabilities with petrol vehicles. The team will also be broadening their scope to include electric vehicles, which would be of a different make from the traditional petrol vehicles.”
Last year The WinePress reported that basically all auto manufacturers are storing very personal driver and passenger data, including things such as “sexual activity” and “genetic information,” and even “predispositions” the vehicle’s internal computers. SEE: Auto Manufacturers Are Now Tracking Your ‘Sexual Activity’ And ‘Genetic Information,’ Along With ‘Predispositions’
With vehicles now being some of the biggest personal data harvesters these days, and what is happening in Singapore, the odds are this will happen in other countries rises.
Tech repairman and right-to-repair Louis Rossman contends this is only a formality, and is already happening to certain extents in the United States. He cites two articles from the New York Times both published this year: “How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me),” and “Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies.” Furthermore, Rossman reported that a Judge ruled that it’s legal for automakers to download & store your text messages under WA privacy law.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
John 10:10(a) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
The lesson here is to abstain from using new model vehicles. It’s absurd that we have to think and live this way, but that’s the hand of cards we’ve been dealt with; because the masses could care less that every last little detail about them – even what they might do – is being datalogued, and then sold for a price and given to police to be used against them some day.
Eventually all of this will be hooked up to the AI mainframes that will be monitoring and tracking every last little thing people do…
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Yes, for the time being we can escape from such spying nightmare by buying a car with mechanical hand brake, mechanical gear stick (automatic or manual), old DVD player, and no sound or video recording – perhaps an attached dash cam will not betray us.
Mechanical car controls are essential if we are to avoid our car being hacked into and highjacked by Government assassins, as it happened some years ago when a journalist that had been revealing a US general’s criminality bought a brand new Mercedes, and one night he was crashed at tremendous speed while driving it somewhere in a town in the country; there is video recording of the speed of the crash, the immediate explosion and the final disintegration of the vehicle in a fearful ball of fire. That was a clear-cut assassination by electronic hacking of the vehicle – and only a state agent could have done it.
An article that explains the main points of that assassination by hacking:
https://www.sott.net/article/394946-After-five-years-the-death-of-investigative-journalist-Michael-Hastings-remains-a-mystery
What happened to good old fashioned radar?