I remember reading that.

Well, I don't object to any of that. A Lada sounds a bit over-the-top, but it might survive an EMP attack, I guess.

I run into sensationalism in this area pretty often. I don't know what the goal of it is. Do you want more GDPR, net neutrality, and other government regulations? I don't think any government / corporate black box is going to prevent the things you're describing.

Do you want to educate people? That's worthy, but it has to go beyond sensationalism and get into real risk assessment.

This is one of the top Google results for "privacy dangers of your new car": https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/17/what-does-your-car-know-about-you-we-hacked-chevy-find-out/

It's so bad. Don't be like the man who wrote this. He bought a car with a telematics system (advertised since the 1990s as knowing instantly if you've wrecked your car, and where). Then he hired a forensic expert to physically tear the car apart and mine data.

I mean, yeah, if you buy a car that's specifically sold on that kind of telematics capability, and then let an expert take it apart, he's going to find some interesting data. Was this in doubt?

That said, there are real risks out there. People use Google as a sort of SSO tool for their whole lives. People buy cars with things like OnStar and don't know whether it's off or on.

My car just doesn't have that feature. It's a 2019, but the trim level I bought doesn't even have the hardware (such as a 4G transceiver) installed. That Washington Post article should have given a list of cars like mine and another of cars like that Chevy. Maybe a third list could show cars that are kind of "in between," e.g. those that ship with a wireless data transceiver that's turned off by default.

It should have talked about the risks of using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, and point out that you're largely already incurring those risks if you rely on your smartphone.

Every 6 months or so, I read a comment like yours, or an article like that stupid one I linked, and I'm forced down this rabbit hole again. It's a very inefficient way to make whatever point you're wanting to make.