For context, The WinePress reported last year that all major vehicle brands are tracking and storing very specific personal data in modern vehicles. This includes things such as “driver’s license number, national or state identification number, citizenship status, immigration status, race, national origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sexual activity, precise geolocation, health diagnosis data, and genetic information;” and other manufacturers go so far as to collect “consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”
Now that data – which the typical consumer is not going to know – has been leaked in a data breach that affected hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen drivers.
Engadget provides more details on the story:
A Volkswagen software subsidiary called Cariad experienced a massive data leak that left 800,000 EV owners exposed, according to reporting by the German publication Spiegel Netzwelt. The leak allowed personal information to be left online for months, including movement data and contact information.
This included precise location data for 460,000 vehicles made by VW, Seat and Audi. According to reports, the information was accessible via the Amazon cloud storage platform. There’s a silver lining here. Cariad says that, despite being available, no bad actors accessed the exposed data. The good-faith hacking association Chaos Computer Club (CCC) spotted the leak on November 26 and brought it to the company’s attention.
VW said in a statement reviewed by the German press agency DPA that the error has since been rectified, so that the information is no longer accessible. Additionally, the company noted that the leak only pertained to location and contact info, as passwords and payment data weren’t impacted. It added that only select vehicles registered for online services were initially at risk, stating that “the data was accessed in a very complex, multi-stage process.”
According to Volkswagen, the CCC hackers group was only able to access pseudonymized vehicle data that didn’t allow for any conclusions to be reached regarding specific customers. This was done “only by bypassing several security mechanisms, which required a high level of expertise and a considerable investment of time.”
In other words, the impacted customers shouldn’t be too worried about their location data being harvested by dark web ne’er-do-wells. The company has started an investigation into the matter and will make a decision regarding further steps when that is concluded.
As modern vehicles get more and more online, it opens them up to a myriad of new risks. It was just last year when a viral TikTok challenge taught Hyundai users how to hack their vehicles, resulting in more than a dozen crashes and eight deaths.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Of course the media would say “customers shouldn’t be too worried…” Don’t ask questions, don’t challenge the Orwellian surveillance state, just accept your oppression with a smile and without a care.
It is important to remember that this is not limited to EVs: this is in all gas and diesel vehicles as well; and all major makes and models within the last decade at a minimum are collecting incredibly sensitive and personal data the moment your butt hits the seat of a car. All of this is spelled out in the privacy policy, the owner’s manual and the contract the owner or lender signs, and they are obligated (according to the fine print) to instruct any would-be passenger of this.
Rossman, who I linked to in the video above, argues that the issue is not the technology itself but the lack of oversight and protection. I disagree. It is that and the technology. There is NO reason for a vehicle to be collecting this type of data under any circumstance. But we know that this data is constantly being sold to third-party companies and advertisers, and eventually will be leveraged by insurance companies against drivers; especially once digital IDs and social credit score are implemented.
Proverbs 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
[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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