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Comment by meghan_rain

3 years ago

Why does Toyota even have this data?

Checkout their privacy policy, it includes biometrics and facial scans, and microphone data. It's absolutely wild.

https://www.toyota.com/support/privacy-notice/

https://web.archive.org/web/20230512181415/https://www.toyot...

  • Look at the really opaque language in the table under 12. DISCLOSURES FOR INDIVIDUALS IN THE UNITED STATES: Summary of Prior 12-Month Personal Information Handling Practices

    For example, under the category: Sensitive personal information or data, such as precise geolocation data, biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual, account login information, driver's license, and financial information.

    ... > Purpose of Processing: For location tracking, to identify you, and to provide services to you.

    > Other: We may have used and disclosed your Personal Information for other reasons described in the How We Use the Information We Collect and How We Disclose Information sections.

    ...and the section 'Sensitive Personal Information' for their explanation of limits on what they do with it.

    ...and:

    Your Privacy Rights: 4. Right to Know and Access... You may have the right to request that we provide you with the Personal Information we have collected about you, including the categories of Personal Information; the categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected; the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing Personal Information; the categories of third parties to whom we disclose Personal Information; and the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.

Some vehicular services require location data.

>This incident exposed the information of customers who used the company's T-Connect G-Link, G-Link Lite, or G-BOOK services between January 2, 2012, and April 17, 2023.

>T-Connect is Toyota's in-car smart service for voice assistance, customer service support, car status and management, and on-road emergency help.

I'm sorry, what? No one thinks about what data is being sent back to the manufacturer when buying a car. Now I need to know what my car know and what is being transmitted back. It would be nice if I could turn off this functionality.

  • > No one thinks about what data is being sent back to the manufacturer when buying a car.

    Well, at least one does. Me. The risk of that is the primary thing that is in my mind, over literally every other aspect of the car.

    I also wouldn't trust that any controls to not send data would actually stop all data from being sent.

  • This is what I think about most when buying a car. This is why I plan on keeping my current car for as long as possible since it was one of the last Toyotas to not be connected to anything.

  • > No one thinks about what data is being sent back to the manufacturer when buying a car.

    Chevrolet has had OnStar since 1996, and has sold data related to it for probably just as long -- this isn't some new phenomenon.

    I remember these same arguments echoed back then -- but at least it was a unique happening at the time.

  • When I set up my Corolla the app made me go through and enable/disable a bunch of things. I declined most of the connected technology at setup time without any issue.