Is My Car Reporting Data

Bluetooth can transmit 10 feet
Wifi less than a block with an omni directional antenna
(About 15 miles with a very directional antenna, but a car changes angle so frequently that would be impractical)
Cell Phones need a tower within 10 miles.
Curvature of the earth blocks signals over 22 miles, unless you have a tall tower.

Before Big Brother can track your cars diagnostics, you need to invent a new technology that can power a strong antenna with a 12 volt battery. If you listen to FM radio, your station will occasionally announce "100,000 watts of power and the largest tower*" My car has neither.

* The Most Powerful FM Stations

I worked at a gold mine and actually DID track the diagnostics for every piece of heavy equipment, but I only had to worry about 4 square miles and the antennas were quite visible.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CIIBEBYwBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liebherr.com%2FME%2Fde-DE%2Fproducts_me.wfw%2Fid-14270-0%2Fmeasure-metric%2Ftab-9556_1509%3Ffile%3D~%2FcatXmedia%2Fme%2FDocuments%2FNTB_T282C_BT_US_08_10084-0.pdf&ei=EerFU9DwDMq2yASG7IHYBw&usg=AFQjCNF6uFomr8HH1DVAPNHgw32c4Fxzpg&sig2=3MSs2BphyARQ88qqMoHdDA&bvm=bv.71126742,d.aWw

You can see an antenna on the drivers side mirror mast on page 1 and 2, page 9 discusses Wifi, Cellular, or LEO transfer of truck diagnostics.

 

if you can't sleep, please track my location info.... It will be so boring you will fall dead asleep.
...as follows, Home to work / work to home / 6X Days / Repeat ad nauseam

 

i knew it.

 

By posting on this forum, you've already relinquished some privacy. The originating IP that posted the OP has already been tracked and logged. There is an interesting series of articles here about living off the grid.
How to Disappear (almost) Completely: living off the grid

1. Anyway, in answer to your question, you should've purchased a level 2 trim if you don't want to be tracked because that's very the definition of a navigation system.
2. Satellite radio also sends out signals which can be tracked using clever tricks.
3. I doubt bluetooth has enough range but I suppose a nefarious agent next door could glean some interesting information.
4. The tires also transmit information wirelessly through TPMS.
5. The car is continuously listening for the keyfob to detect if it's in the vicinity, while you drive and after you park.
6. And then there is Entune but it only works through apps on a smart phone.

 

For what it's worth, I work for a telco. Somehow I suspect that won't ease anyone's conspiracy theories.

 

Private car.....Public roads.
The original question is irrelevant in the US, and even more so elsewhere.
The OP should rest at ease though, unless she/he takes the car to a dealer.

If you drive on public streets, it's like surfing the net. Your expectation of privacy is (or should be) somewhat attenuated.

I've been a telco and a military worker. Sometimes both.
From my perspective, people who struggle furiously to "protect their privacy" usually wind up being a more interesting statistical outlier.
Herd mentality.
You want to be the gazelle in the middle.
The view may suck, but you don't get to see if you can outrun a big cat or become bush-meat for some bi-ped with a large-bore rifle.

 

My understanding is that the base entune systems do not have any kind of wireless data modem other than bluetooth. They can only talk to the outside world if they are plugged in or if you allow them to connect through your cell phone. If you do connect it to the internet via your phone Toyota's privacy statement should apply, but what that's worth is pretty debatable.

 

we call it 'flying under the radar'.

 

Put your obsession to good use ...
Contact info NSA Recruitment...

The Office of Recruitment
Phone: 1-866-672-4473
E-mail: [email protected]

If you can't beat them, join them!
or
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer!

 

oh right, of course you're not.

 

They don't have to tell you where....how....why...because..............................it's 'private'~

This question has been asked and answered.
Your car doesn't have a secret transponder, and the NAV unit is passive.


The SPOT messengers you cited are generally used in a maritime environment, and it would be silly to put something like that in 14 bazillion automobiles because (a) the Globalstar network almost certainly couldn't handle the traffic (pun almost unintended) and (2) it's probably 2 orders of magnitude more expensive than the GPS/cellular trackers that companies (like mine) use to track their employees.
Besides.....unless you're a regular George Noory listener complete with Reynolds Aluminum hat, it's much easier to track you with plastic money and cell phones.

Still....
If you're the type that puts tape over their PC and phone cameras......
You might want to crawl under your car frequently and look for non-OEM bugs and trackers.
It's illegal to jam cellular signals but not so merely to (try to) detect them.

Privacy isn't a thing of the past.
We're each just one of billions of people on the planet, and we're not going to be here very long.

Good Luck!

 

I'd like to say you can ask any questions you want but unfortunately this kind of forum does not tolerate descent. You've sparked me into thinking about privacy.

I'd like to ask you. Suppose you are tracked and you have no privacy. Then what? I'm not belittling you, I'd like to know what are negative effects of this. Here's my line of thinking.

If I am not a criminal, the government won't find anything to incriminate me. If an entity wants to imprison me illegally, they can do so whether I have privacy or not. I.E. Guantanimo Bay

Companies track my web browsing and target ads at me. We are already inundated with ads. I'd rather they target ads that are relevant to me like how Hulu does it. I'm not going to get more ads, I'll just get ads for things I am interested in. If I am smart, I won't start buying everything I see.

Google Now tells me where I parked my car. Figured out where I live and work on its own. It even tracked how many hours I walked in a month. I find this information useful. Where is the negative? What is my privacy worth to me. Why is my privacy all that precious? I'd rather be tracked so that people can find me should I get lost. I still remember the CNET editor that got lost in Oregon during a snow storm. His car got stuck and he perished looking for help. His family survived only because they eventually triangulated his last cell phone signal. Everyone kept wondering why a tech site writer didn't have navigation in his car.

 

The act is that Government agents are allowed to lie and use any evidence gleamed from those lies.

It is NOT true the other way 18USC1001 makes it a Federal offense to lie to a Federal Agent. More often than not, the individual is charges and convicted of the "cover-up" than the crime, itself.

If you want to keep anything a secret, "Don't share it with anyone else." The most efficient way to spread misinformation is to tell the individual that you are confiding it that it is a secret.

The other false and naïve belief in conventional wisdom, is "If you are innocent and have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about." Those are famous last words. We charged and convicted may of them who talked.

The smartest individuals, when read "Miranda v Arizona," chose to remain silent.

 

People always seem to give my beloved government undue credit for efficiency.

I'm thinking that if they cannot track a Boeing 777 dash 200ER that's flying all by itself over the IO then they're not going to have much better luck picking my little Prius out of the other 265,121,061 (est.) registered vehicles in the US.......and this is presuming (incorrectly!) that I would be important enough to bother with tracking.

Not illegal.
Immoral, perhaps.