this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Privacy
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I’ve been telling people since this dna testing started that sooner or later that data will be for sale, an insurance company will buy it, and then get used against people to increase their health insurance rates or deny claims.
But I’m a crazy conspiracy theorist according to everyone ;)
Same reason I don’t want to buy a new car anymore…
GATTACA! GATTACA!
LOL I told everyone the same. Same on my end, they thought I was being conspirational. As if a company could never one day fail and have to sell their assets. It seemed impossible to them, somehow.
I used to think that part of the reason is that they submitted their samples without thinking and later contemplating how not smart that action was; created some hard cognitive dissonance, making calling me a conspiracy theorist the far easier pill to swallow than admitting a mistake. Since I know of people who did it early on, as they thought they were being cutting edge at the time.
Yeah, I do not want to buy a car either or anything that sells in subscriptions. I am already keeping an eye on models of non-smart TVs for when my current model finally dies. LOL
Even if a relative has shared their DNA, it can be used to make some fairly safe assumptions about yours.
My car's computer doesn't transmit. It doesn't log anything more than engine fault codes. That's how I like it.
Find me a car produced in 2024 or later which does this
2024 Suzuki Swift.
You even need to dial in the date and time manually because there's no GPS either.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/3476295/Suzuki-Swift-2024.html?page=548#manual
Because of the "driving behavior" data that gets sent out via secret cell connections and bought by insurance companies?
Just disconnect the modem problem solved.
Not sure if it is a joke.
But according to the legalese of some manufacfurers, just being inside the car is a form of you giving consent.
You would have to disable all radios and receivers, GPS, never take your car for maintenance and never connect your car's systems to anything and never connect your phone or peripherals to it. As your phone will send car data to the manufacturers. Disable or break all cameras. And this is assuming they even respect you opting out. Apparently, most people are so unaware of the data collecting being such a huge thing that some manufacturers do not even really disable what you tell them to disable, or by using the car or an option in the car, you give them permission to enable them again. LOL Point is that you can't or most people won't do any of these things and car makers won't stop until maybe they get sued.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/how-figure-out-what-your-car-knows-about-you-and-opt-out-sharing-when-you-can
Yup. Go ahead and try turning that cell phone radio thing off. Why do you need an app for remote start? Why can’t it be on the keyfob anymore? But again, nothing to see here - just the continued enshittification of everything.
I just pulled the fuse. Problem solved. Phone start doesn't work but never used it.
Safest thing that would actually work is to take out the battery. ;-)
Not on electric cars. LOL
What! What cars have this???
Yup.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
Wonder if the ones without apps do it.
Yes, unfortunately. I dunno if it's a global thing or just in the US, but several years ago, they started sending your car's computer data to insurance companies, who then use it to determine how well you drive and what insurance rates they want to give you.
It's really scummy.
Here is at least one of those reports the other poster touched on
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
All cars for awhile. Mozilla released a privacy report a year or two ago and it seems nobody cared. Which is why they can do this stuff.