Mozilla released their studies, and I’m seeing a growing number of posts on the Internet about cars and the privacy nightmare they entail. I remember how this issue wasn’t talked about earlier because “just buy an older car” was still prevalent. I’m so happy that people are taking notice. Thank you to this community and Mozilla for the work they are putting in!
I’m not sure how much it matters that people are taking notice. If all cars are doing it, what can we do? It’s not like people can’t buy cars anymore and it’s not like individual people can pay off politicians to make it illegal like large corporations can to make it legal.
The more people who notice, the more who care. The more who care, the more capital to be gained by proposing and / or supporting regulation.
We won’t get free healthcare (in the states) or housing, but this is something trivial enough that I could see politicians making a play.
There are a few options I guess. If enough people notice then there may be more money in being the company that respects privacy and just charges more for the car up front.
It might even encourage more people to buy used instead of new.
Or some people might just decide they don’t need a car.
Caring is the first step to actively doing something. The more people that know, the more that will care and the more people that will act. Gotta start somewhere.
Hopefully the EU gets pissed about it skirting around GDPR.