SoylentNews

hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Removing the Modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid [arkadiyt.com]:

Modern cars are computers on wheels - they have more sensors than you can count and are constantly phoning home with telemetry data like your location, speed, fuel levels, sudden accelerations/decelerations, video footage, driver attention data from eye monitoring systems, and hundreds of other data points. Cars have inward- and outward-facing cameras. They have microphones. They have always-on modems. It's all enabled by default with difficult or meaningless opt-outs, and your data is monetized through brokers like LexisNexis or Verisk. [...]

Now that we're sufficiently motivated, what can we do about it? In this blog post, rather than relying on companies' promises or meaningless opt-outs, we're going to stop the data at the source by physically removing the modem (the DCM, or Data Communication Module) as well as the built-in GPS on my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid, so the car will no longer have the capability to send any telemetry data back home. Let's dive in:

TFA follows with a step-by-step process to remove the DCM and replace it with a bypass module so that the in-car microphone is still functional, and to unplug the built-in GPS antenna.

Conclusion

Overall I'm very happy with this project. Unfortunately I think it's only a matter of time before the modem and GPS become more deeply integrated into the car (making this blog post infeasible), or cars have more drastic failure modes when the modem/GPS is removed, or anti-right-to-repair laws get passed to further clamp down on this behavior. For now the win stands - no telemetry leaves the car. Strong Federal privacy laws would make posts like this unnecessary, that's the world I'd rather live in.

Original Submission