"... Rivian will integrate Alexa into its electric pickup and SUV"

[Babbuino]

Hope you don’t have social media.

Or a cell phone

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[electruck]

If you have any connection at all to the internet or a cellular network, you are most likely already being tracked. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, Pinterest and many others including your internet and mobile service providers track your activity. You don't even need to be logged in or have an account with some of these services - they still can and do track your online activity.

 

[DucRider]

Or drive any vehicle with a GPS system (either built in or 3rd party).
Or any vehicle with emergency assist (Onstar, etc) that will call 911 when the airbags deploy and let them know where you are.

 

[electruck]

Or drive any vehicle with a GPS system (either built in or 3rd party).
Or any vehicle with emergency assist (Onstar, etc) that will call 911 when the airbags deploy and let them know where you are.

Yes, very true, although that falls into positional tracking which has different implications than for web activity. But for the paranoid, tracking is still tracking.

Use a credit or debit card? You're being tracked.

In the more general context of privacy, some may even be surprised to know what information about them is a matter of public record.

 

[skyote]

To each their own...hopefully you don't own a mobile phone, browse the internet without a VPN, or own a Tesla or any newer vehicle that logs data.

Or use Google/Gmail, Facebook, or buy anything from Amazon.

Privacy is almost a myth in the world we live in. Even the amount of information about us from public/government sources is astounding, and hope you didn't have any federal service, military duty, background check, or security clearance after the OPM breach.

I've come to realize the best thing you can do is to enable maximum security for your identity & online profiles/passwords/authentication (multi factor anywhere possible).

 

[U100]

I've come to realize the best thing you can do is to enable maximum security for your identity & online profiles/passwords/authentication (multi factor anywhere possible).

And put a security freeze (not fraud alert) on your credit file with each of the three main credit report companies.

 

[ajdelange]

Or drive any vehicle with a GPS system (either built in or 3rd party).

This implies that the GPS system knows where you are. Not so. It only broadcasts time tagged bit streams which the receiver uses to determine position (and time). In order for someone to know where you are using the car's GPS receiver there must be additional equipment which transmits the receiver's output to them.

I drive a car with a built in GPS receiver but it has no modem. No one, except me, knows where I am.

 

[Jehorton]

This implies that the GPS system knows where you are. Not so. It only broadcasts time tagged bit streams which the receiver uses to determine position (and time). In order for someone to know where you are using the car's GPS receiver there must be additional equipment which transmits the receiver's output to them.

I drive a car with a built in GPS receiver but it has no modem. No one, except me, knows where I am.

And your phone

 

[electruck]

I drive a car with a built in GPS receiver but it has no modem. No one, except me, knows where I am.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...endment-and-access-to-automobile-black-boxes/

 

[ajdelange]

If you have a phone with you it not only has a GPS receiver and several modems but the tower system can, and does, locate each phone independent of GPS. If your car has a black box and the black box records the GPS position and someone takes the black box from the car he will then have access to your location data. But the point I am trying to get across is that GPS is NOT a two way system. Its satellites transmit only. They cannot receive anything from you.

 

[52371]

Hope you don’t have social media.

One business account.

 

[52371]

To each their own...hopefully you don't own a mobile phone, browse the internet without a VPN, or own a Tesla or any newer vehicle that logs data.

I acknowledge your point about mobile phones. Mine is pretty much locked down, runs open source software that I control, and has a hardware kill switch for the radio. Not the set up for most. To your other points about VPN and encryption: yes. Tesla: no. Other vehicle: no.

An always-on AI machine with a backdoor to government agencies is a concern to many of us. I don't need my truck to be a personal assistant. I just want to drive the vehicle.

 

[jimcgov3]

I just want to drive the vehicle.

My suggestion to that is to buy a Bollinger.

 

[Hexijen]

What are you hiding ?

Heh, there are few things that I'd like to keep to myself. For me this vehicle will be about unplugging (no pun intended). Believe me, I know just how hard it is to keep your data private. I'm not looking for a perfect privacy footprint, there is just something about having a microphone on me at all times that I don't care for. It's one thing to have my direct actions on a website tracked, or the location of my vehicle, it is a completely different thing to have a company monitoring and recording my physical body, my actions, my words, at all times.

I will cancel my pre-order unless there is a way to verify that the Alexa package has been removed. Not just disabled -- erased from the vehicle. Don't Trust. Verify.

It may be possible to monitor the modem traffic to confirm that alexa is not sending packets.

What I would really like is a way to disable or choose what data the vehicle collects. One thing that bothers me is when a company doesn't give you a choice on how you interact with the product.

I recommend this video by Oliver Thorne on the subject of privacy:

 

[52371]

What are you hiding ?

Just basic privacy and security. Your question could be asked of anyone who has window coverings in their home.

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