Does anyone know about the legality of removing the built-in sim cards from your car, specifically in Australia?
I don’t intend on using any car smart-features when I get one. For context, I’ve never owned a car. When I do get one though, I intend to remove the sim card to prevent the car’s location from being constantly tracked. All I care about in terms a cars functionality is a radio, a CD drive (Yes, I use CD’s), and Bluetooth audio, so I don’t think removing the sim card should affect this much, if at all. Any knowledge and advice would be appreciated, thankyou!
Update: What I was referring to is an eSim, which appears not to be in the form of a physical card. Even so, if possible, I would like to disable the functionality of this eSim assuming the car I purchase has one in-built. From my research, I cannot find anything that explicitly forbids disabling or removing Sims.
I can’t speak to the legality, but if you own the vehicle 100%, I can’t see removing parts from the vehicle being illegal as long as they don’t impinge on road safety.
I would recommend removing more than just the SIM card, if the radios have their own fuse, take the fuse out, or physically remove the radios themselves.
the modem or mobile router in the car is what can be tracked by telcos via IMEI pings with or without an ESIM. telematics units can be disabled by pulling fuses and you should also call to opt out with most car manufacturers.
When you do finally drive, you’ll find that having a GPS and such is awesome.
If you’re paranoid to that extent, you’re better off getting an old car honestly. But trust me, nobody cares about tracking your car, and there are so many licence plate readers here in Australia you’re not really anonymous anyway
I think OP is referring to the whole “connected cars” thing, which isn’t the same as GPS. Many cars nowadays have mobile data capabilities on and are, unbeknownst to the owner, sending all sorts of information to the car makers.
This isn’t just governments and government contractors collecting data for road use and tolling. It’s for-profit companies harvesting consumer data for their own purpose. OP is right to be paranoid.
I know how helpful GPS is. Also, I am not paranoid, and you shouldn’t be making those kinds of assumptions about anyone you don’t know. I simply want to minimize private data being open for abuse and am exploring what can and can’t be done, and their benefits and disadvantages. This after all, is the privacy community you’re talking in; where you share advice and knowledge about enhancing ones privacy, not telling them they are paranoid for pursuing it.
Cellular service has nothing to do with gps capabilities.
true, but totally irrelevant. Gps has nothing to do with sim cards
This is just the usual “nothing to hide” handwaving argument.
This data is not used by some theoretical policeman to laugh at how bad you drive, it is part of commercial datamining present in virtually all devices and services you use.
GPS and such? Great that I have a smartphone that I trust more, and have more control over, than this big blackbox with no access whatsoever.
You’d better be leaving your phone at home every time you drive that car or you’ve defeated the point
Not necessarily true. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good enough. Limiting the number of organizations that have your data is a good thing. There’s no reason the car vendor needs that data
Why would a car manufacturer give you cellular service for free? If you don’t pay for subscriptions, surely they’re not seeing any of your car’s data?
The telemetry from your car has value, plus if they control your infotainment system they can constantly try to upsell you to subscribe or buy other features.
Not to mention when we’re talking about on a car manufacturer, they can negotiate fleet-wide data access for all the vehicles. With an agreement with the manufacturer that if the user actually buys data access for themselves, they split the profit with the carrier
So new cars have always-on cellular connectivity regardless of subscriptions paid? That’s insane. The auto industry is a genuine menace.
Not all new cars. But some. Whenever you get a vehicle, it’s probably a good idea to buy one of those aftermarket service manuals sold to car mechanics for your make and model. Then you can verify radio repair etc etc and what circuits to take out etc
Besides if you’re trying to do information upsell, you don’t want your customer to have to go to a cell phone store and buy a SIM card and put it in the car. That’s extra friction they might change their mind. You want it to be always on and available, so they can just consent and get into the funnel
Good advice even when buying an older car. I wonder if there’s a shitlist for the manufacturers who have this crap pre-installed and always running?
Consider the possibility that they are selling the data collected from you for a profit and using part of those profits to pay for the cellular service.
Also there’s many more settings on a phone to disable share your location for most uses vs on a car where it seems like your location goes straight to insurance companies.
Get an old car instead?
that won’t work forever
It’ll work for longer than a new car… minus the tracking.
Tesla allow you to opt out of all connectivity
It means you would have no maps, no driver assist, no Internet radio
Anyway if you buy a car it is yours. The worst you can do is break the contact for whatever services are provided by the connectivity. You are allowed to modify a car however you like
Tesla don’t support CD. You’d need to rip those to mp3 and keep them on your phone to play over Bluetooth
You are allowed to modify a car however you like
I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Like, even if we are not taking about adding a badly welded 4 wheel attachment without the use of a trailer hook, the car will have to go through technical inspection every few years.
If the inspectirs deem that a non-functional such system is a problem, you’ll not be driving your car anywhere.If your modification makes it unroadworthy, you might not be allowed to drive it on public roads
If your modification changes its structure you may need certification that it is still roadworthy
I’m not seeing a case where you’re restricted by law from modifying the car
Software has special legal protections. You can stop it working with impunity, you can break it with impunity, you cannot legally defeat security on the software. Corey Doctorow calls the software protections “felony contempt of business model”