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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:00PM
Your very first "edit" literally asserted a character to her intent:
It may be the same verb each time, but it's the wrong verb. For it to be "stalking", in both colloquial and legal senses, would require repeated invasive action taken over time, of which you have no evidence.
And by using the word "stalking", this is another example of you trying to characterize her intent without evidence.
If VW are operating a service which lets people monitor the activity of cars which can be re-sold, then yes they are required by law to be aware of the user-car side of their business, else be in breach of privacy regulations. The obligation to keep VW informed of changes of ownership is likely in the agreements with those privately-owned businesses.