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Last December, Ashley Sehatti sold her 2015 Jetta back to a local Volkswagen dealership in California. So when the calendar turned over, she didn't understand why she was still getting sent monthly reports about the car's health. After another one came in April, she finally logged on to VW's online portal for Car-Net, the telematics system that runs in many of the company's modern cars.
To her surprise, Sehatti saw the location of her old Jetta on a map, up-to-date mileage, and the status of the car's locks and lights. It had been resold, and yet she still had access to some of the car's systems. "There was nothing in place to stop me from accessing the full UI," she says over email.
What Sehatti hadn't realized is that Volkswagen puts the burden of disabling access to Car-Net squarely on the customer in its terms of service agreement when they decide to sell or exchange a car — even if the car is going back to a VW dealer.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/4/17303644/volkswagen-car-net-security-location-access
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @02:29PM (1 child)
GM is supposed to reset OnStar when selling a used car, but there are plenty of reports of the same problem.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Monday May 07 2018, @05:41PM
Because I have an e-mail address in the form of [first initial] + [last name] @ [large ISP], I get lots of mail for people who think that's their e-mail address, when in fact theirs is [first initial] + [last name] + [some random number] @ [large ISP]. Usually I am able to get it straightened out pretty easily.
But there are three or four vehicles that I get regular OnStar Monthly Reports on that I haven't been able to deflect.
When I contact a dealer listed as contact info, they say that only OnStar can fix it and I have to contact them directly.
When I contact OnStar, they won't "access the account" unless I can provide personal information proving it's mine (which it isn't) and recommend I contact the dealer to resolve it.
So, I still get OnStar e-mails, because the OnStar system is operated largely by people who don't quite get the privacy thing (and who, by the way, seem to have neither English nor Spanish as a first language). Fair enough, I wouldn't expect OnStar to get privacy.
I may end up printing the reports and mailing them to the vehicle owners, along with a report of efforts I have undertaken to stop receiving them, in the hopes that they can get it sorted.