RapidC84B

The article about the couple buying a Z06 with a bad check stated that the dealership shut down the vehicle via OnStar.... what the hell?

http://www.corvetteblogger.com/2016/...z06-bad-check/

What's the process to get authorization? Note to self... don't rob a bank in a modern Corvette.

Toombs

Sounds like everything was handled perfectly(except for taking the bad check). Good for them, caught some thieves.

nearwater

Vehicle disable feature was available since Gen7 OnStar modules(2006~) along with vehicle slow down(basically no gas) to assist the authorities upon criminal activities.
OnStar modules are very capable..

mowe

Can you disable them ?

pewter99

OnStar can disable the car if requested by LE.....yes

pewter99

sure, disconnect it

stevebz06

Has anybody here read the book, "1984" or seen the movie "THX1138?"

If they can shut the car down then they of course can listen to conversations and track
your movements.

nmvettec7

Americans have very little privacy now a days due to the technological world we live in. If you use a computer your privacy is just about shot. Google probably knows more about you than your next door neighbor does or even a relative.

senah

correction, google KNOWS (if you use them). and makes a lot of money from it. microsoft designs its software to comply with "backdoor" requests of the authorities.

https://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/ excerpt;for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens. It has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas.

there is a tradeoff when you use onstar. it's up to each individual to decide whether they want to use it or disable it by removing the power to it.

there are methods on google about how to disable it.

stevebz06

I believe that that the statement regarding the NSA spying is wrong: do you remember the program called Carnivore? Probably not, it didn't get a huge amount of press.

Basically, it was a program to intercept virtually ALL electronic communications around the world and sift them through computer screening for possible bad intentions. This program was announced during Bill Clinton's presidency. I read about it in a newspaper. Newspapers used to be a common way of getting information before the widespread use of the internet, in case you didn't know.

When I read about it I thought that the civil libertarian crowd would go nuts, but I didn't see any reaction at all. Could it be that the average civil libertarian is ok with leftwing violations of civil liberties?

mschuyler

OnStar is not the only thing that can track you. "Black boxes" in your car track your every move. And for goodness sake don't carry a cell phone. The easiest way to avoid all this is to dump your iPhone and drive an old car, maybe a 1957 Chevy BelAir. It has the added advantage that you won't have to explain to your grand kids why we say, "Roll up" your window when, in fact, we push a button.

defaria

Non sequitur. No, not "of course" at all. Please describe to use how Onstar can "listen to conversations"? Show your evidence.

senah

carnivore for fbi, echelon for nsa. most people won't believe or even bother to research the subject. i was about 50 before i started to wake up, so i can't be critical of others. my opinion after 30 years of research; NOTHING is as the system projects it to be, absolutely nothing.

senah

is there a microphone associated with onstar?

CriticalmassGT

Absolutely. High Risk credit lenders install GPS units are kill switches so if you are late on a payment they can not only locate the vehicle to repossess it, they can keep it from being moved.

7 years ago my wife had bad credit and I insisted she be on the loan (it would have been a lot cheaper if I had been the sole person on the loan), but I wanted to help her build her credit back up. 7 years later and her credit is in excellent shape, but that first car had just such a system installed in it until it was paid for.

And just FYI, Her abusive Ex (bio-father of our child) was the cause of her credit issues. After the birth of my step-daughter he wouldn't even let her out of the house most of the time, and being adopted she did not have family to help her. So I met her and got her out of the state and away from him. I took a lot of pleasure from that experience, even more so when we went to court because I moved her across the country and he "thought" they were going to force her to come back to the state, in handcuffs. lol. Obviously that never happened. Sometimes there is still justice in the world.

stevebz06

Yes, you can talk to an OnStar operator. I have inadvertently pushed the OnStar button a number of times and an operator answers me.

CriticalmassGT

It is still used, only the new version is much improved. From what I understand the UK has an even better version of it. Carnivore was an FBI funded program, they have a new name for it now, but I forget what it is.

The average "person" in general doesn't care one way or another about privacy as long as it doesn't impact them, they just do NOT care. Only a small segment of the population actually gives a ****, and because a segment of those people are off the deep end, no credence is given to people who do care about their privacy.

These days, if you are on the Internet, you have no privacy. NONE at all. The only way to have privacy is to forego the Internet entirely. If I were still of a mind, it would be so easy to track anyone right down to their home address, their mortgages, their assets, where they work. Whether or not they are married or single or going through a divorce.

I'm not of a mind, but one of my hobbies is Internet security and there are a few sites that post data logs of hackers that have been, and have not been caught. You'd be surprised at how easy it is. Google and Facebook are probably the worst offenders. The Google claims to have a "Do No Harm" motto, they collect data on your every move, and Facebook is about as far behind as the wireless telecomms.

Government grade (NSA) Facial and Voice recognition is pretty good. The UK's is slightly better, but their secret is better kept.

If you want any modicum of privacy, get rid of facebook, linkedin, and stop using any of the larger search engines or "free" email accounts, and use a VPN service outside of the country for everything you do. And stick with burner phones. That all being said. I accept it as a fact of life and don't have anything really worth hiding from big brother. It still bothers me in principal because we are "supposed" to be a free nation, but we're really not. We're just "more" free than the rest of the world, and not by a lot in some cases.

The only real protection you have is the fact that the Internet is so large and so widely used, unless an agency had a reason to track you, they will not waste their resources to bother. They're too busy trying to stop domestic and foreign terrorists to bother with the likes of you and I and are woefully understaffed as it is.

stevebz06

You must be one of the, "If I haven't heard of it, it must not exist." crowd. You haven't heard that your phone can be turned on remotely and listened to?

mschuyler

Not to be Mr. Obvious, but I think Senah's post was a little deeper than that. A doubting and skeptical Defaria questioned the idea that anyone could listen in to conversations:



Senah then "asked" whether there was a microphone associated with OnStar, knowing full well that there is and that it is an integral part of the system. Thus Senah proved to Defaria with the required "evidence" that yes, one's conversations could be monitored, which was the original point denied (it appears to me) by Defaria.

senah

exactly.