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.
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I doubt any modern car with those features have a physical sim card you can remove. They are probably all using some sort of esim. On some cars the antennas can be unplugged but that depends on the specific model. If you’re unlucky, you will not even be able to remove the tracking features at all because they are integrated with other components needed to function.
With regards to the legality of that, I unfortunately cant help you there. Probably best to search for local cases or ask a local lawyer.
Your best option in probably buing a used car thats old enogh not to track you. Hope that helps a bit
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.
Better would be to locate the antenna connection on the device that’s doing the communication, and replace the antenna with a dummy load.
Get an old car instead?
that won’t work forever
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
Research the fuses on the car. The smart systems or modem can most likely be disabled by removing power to them.
Or if the fuses apply to too broad of a system, the wireless modem should be able to be disconnected.
Manufacturers like to implement this capability using modules which can be used across their lines of vehicles. Here’s an example for a 2017 Silverado, but you’d want to research service manuals / diagrams for the vehicle you’re considering buying: https://www.silveradosierra.com/threads/2017-silverado-removed-lte-modem.660593/
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
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.
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.
I suggest using public transport since that is almost impossible to do
Confused American noises?
If you live somewhere like NYC, Chicago or San Francisco I don’t see the problem
Sure, as long as you never plan to leave the metro area.
As others have said it will likely be an ESIM or similar solution because there isn’t a need for the manufacturer to support physical SIMs.
Regarding being tracked though, Australia has ANPR just like most other developed countries, you will be trackable even if your car was just a Flintstones car with a numberplate.
I’d also add if you’ve got a phone in your pocket, that’s just as trackable
This is more about the car maker harvesting data, rather than just tracking the car. Car makers have been (quietly) building more tech into their cars to collect data for the purposes of selling it to third parties. It’s effectively the enshittification of cars.
That is not the problem, it’s the incredible invasion of privacy the cars have from the manufacturer not the state. Lookup Mozilla privacy report on cars for more information. It’s appalling.
I’m interested in this topic as well. I know I’m being tracked on my phone, but I’m much more confident my phone manufacturer is not selling/giving my data to police or insurance companies. Those are who I’m concerned with tracking me.
Apple is the manufacturer who makes the biggest hoo-ha over privacy, yet they gave user data to the police 90% of the time (Google was surprisingly lower at 80%)
Plus if you have a subscription to a mobile cellular network, as basically everyone with a phone does, that will also be constantly tracking you (and I believe also directly available to the police).
That’s all without going into whether you trust every single third party app on your phone and every website you visit.
It’s not just the phone manufacturer, but the mobile carrier, and apps with access to your location (like weather apps, or map apps)
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.
I guess the manufacturer would void any warranty you have on the car, so there’that to be considered
I’m happy to take that to court. There are legal controls on what invalidates a warranty, including reasons that can’t be signed away in a contract.
Doing god’s work my mate!
