© Washington Post via YouTubeEngineer Jim Mason removes the computer from the dashboard of the 2017 Chevy Volt to download its contents.
- The Washington Post published an investigative report today in which it gets a hacker to figure out just what kind of information OnStar and a randomly selected 2017 model car's internal computers are collecting.
- A lot, it turns out, including saving pictures of your contacts and logging where you go.
- There are ways to limit how much data your car collects, but they're not obvious, the paper concludes — and the tinfoil treatment humorously shown in the accompanying photo won't do the trick.
© Washington Post
This was proven in a big way by Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler (pictured right), who dug into just how much information his test car, a 2017 Chevrolet Volt, is collecting. Perhaps more important, though, Fowler wanted to see just how much information GM is getting from its connected cars. It's one thing for your car to store your favorite Starbucks in the nav system. It's another if the car company collects that information. The reporter made it clear that this is not a Volt thing, or a Chevy thing; nearly all new cars now have connectivity, including onboard internet connections.
For now, exactly what information goes where is a bit of an unknown by anyone other than the automakers themselves. As Fowler writes, "My Chevy's dashboard didn't say what the car was recording. It wasn't in the owner's manual. There was no way to download it."
Comment: As of right now it seems like Levine's suspicious ban has been lifted.
See also: Social media: Can we take back power from the tech giants and their government overlords?