Eve is here. Note that the main factor that makes a car act as spyware is the introduction of useful but far from necessary services, such as GPS and entertainment systems. However, cars are also equipped with many sensors used for diagnostics. This goes back to at least the early 2000s. And, as Tesla’s warning suggests, these systems are designed to increasingly cripple the vehicle if the nominal owner opts out of the connection. Faraday cages for cars seem to require the car to be stationary.
Written by Thomas Neuberger. Originally published on God’s Spies
“Neoliberalism as an economic system is more about rent extraction than industrial production.”
–Really, this is it.
Two of the most revolutionary inventions ever made by mankind were created in the 20th century. One was at the beginning and one near the end. Both offered the same innovation: quantum advances in personal freedom and power.
Of course, I’m talking about cars, personal vehicles, and PCs, your own computer.
car and computer
If you own a car, you own your own transportation. I don’t rent or borrow. While we can debate the merits of ‘owning’ personal transport, and there are arguments against it for reasons such as climate, pollution and congestion, there is no doubting the freedom it gives people. Do you want to leave now? Jump in the car and hit the road.
The same applies if you own a PC. Before the advent of PCs, some calculations and modeling were extremely tedious and time-consuming, and many were simply impossible. Think of the most complex spreadsheet you’ve ever created. Could you have created it manually? Or if you could do it manually, would you?
Early Sun workstations, the corporate version of the PC from 1990 (source)
Before the advent of the PC and its business equivalent, the UNIX-based Sun workstation, access to computing power was through IBM-style mainframes and minicomputers, such as those made by DEC. None of these can be considered “personal.” They were too expensive and could accommodate multiple users on a terminal, but the computing itself was centralized and owned by companies.
mini computer. A computer smaller than a mainframe that serves users through a “dumb” terminal (source)
To the “dumb” terminal of the minicomputer (source)
Please keep in mind the following: Before the advent of the PC, computing was centralized and owned by corporations. Since the PC, computing power has been in the box you worked in, sold at individual prices. Thanks to Windows 11, all that has been reversed.
Cars and computers, each a revolution in personal power and control. This will take away both of them. Your car is no longer yours, and your PC is no longer yours.
Soon you won’t be able to own your own car
The above statement is true in many ways. The car you have already purchased will be licensed to you, but this license can be canceled.
your new car is a spy
In recent years, cars have become computers. That means your car has become a spy machine. The following is a review of the automotive industry from a privacy perspective, written by the Mozilla Foundation in 2023. The gist of it is the following heading:
It’s official: Automobiles are the worst product category we’ve ever investigated for privacy
All 25 car brands we looked at earned the *Privacy Not Included warning label, making cars officially the worst category of products for privacy we’ve ever looked at.
Here are links to reviews for each brand. Their sins are many. These are the important ones:
Collect too much personal data (all) Most (84%) share or sell the data Most (92%) give drivers little or no control over their personal data We can’t confirm whether drivers meet our minimum security standards
Those who sell your data may include insurance companies who can purchase all the information recorded about your driving habits.
And this can’t be stopped. This is because it’s software, not hardware, and your car needs software to work. This is another Tesla software warning from 2023 (emphasis mine).
However, if you no longer wish to have vehicle data or other data collected from your Tesla vehicle, please contact us to disable the connection. Please note that some advanced features, such as over-the-air updates, remote services, interactivity with mobile applications, and in-vehicle features such as location search, Internet radio, voice commands, and web browser functionality, rely on such connectivity. If you choose to opt-out of vehicle data collection. (except for in-vehicle data sharing settings), we cannot know about it or notify you of any applicable issues in your vehicle in real time. This can reduce the functionality of your vehicle, cause serious damage, or render it inoperable. ”
Since then, the situation has worsened. Tesla is just getting started.
Biden bill – Mandatory “kill switch”
Watch the Breaking Points video above. It details the next dystopian “feature” in cars built from 2027 onwards, from reputable reporters: a “kill switch” that turns off the car if it decides it shouldn’t be driven.
Click here for details. Essentially, under Joe Biden, Section 24220 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would “ultimately require all new passenger vehicles to be equipped with factory-installed technology that detects driver impairment and prevents or limits vehicle operation.”
This implementation is under the jurisdiction of NHTSA, which writes the rules. Unless blocked or modified by Congress, kill switches are expected to be included in all new cars (but not used cars) by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Privacy and control
Two things are certainly true in modern America. 1) Once privacy is taken away, it can never be regained. 2) Once corporations and governments gain power, they distort it as quickly as possible.
The best example of this is this war. Since Congress long ago gave up its war powers, the executive branch has steadily moved on, to the point where today it doesn’t even pretend to have Congressional authorization. Trump wants war everywhere, and that’s what he does. Or consider the definition of “terrorist.” Today, it refers to “any person the federal government seeks to harm, to any degree.”
So what is the biggest harm that the “new car” could do? Your driving will be monitored by AI. Data is stored granularly. Anyone who wants it can buy it for any purpose, including raising premiums or denying coverage.
Additionally, whoever is in charge of the software, whether it be the manufacturer, the FBI (initially subpoenaed, but then who knows), the police, the Department of Homeland Security, or any other legal department, whatever that means, can turn off your car whenever they want (why not?) and gain complete control to lock you up and drive you where they want. Remember, all new powers eventually become perverted.
As always, it starts with a call to Save the Children (MADD is furious about this law).
The next expansion is to further the fight against crime. (“Remember OJ Simpson’s highway chase? What would you do if they got pulled over? You want to get OJ, right? Don’t you hate cops?”)
And what does it transform into? Whatever the security state wants, it’s because it’s “to keep you safe.”
OJ Simpson’s slow escape try (Branimir Kvartuc/ZUMAPRESS.com/Corbis)
licensing revolution
You can no longer own a car for other reasons. You may have noticed a trend where things that used to be available for purchase are now just rented.
• Apple doesn’t sell music, it licenses it.
• You no longer own the software. For example, TurboTax sells a “personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the applicable software for the period of use specified in the order and activation terms.”
• Same goes for ebooks and audiobooks on Amazon.
• Similar to Microsoft Windows. (More on this later.)
Non-transferable and revocable license. Rent your life.
The licensing revolution offers many benefits for operators. The big one is social control. If Amazon wants to remove a book from “your” library, it has every right to do so, and it does. Imagine President Trump’s Amazon “curating your books.” Or a Tipper Gore-esque Apple deleting “violent” songs you’ve already “purchased.”
Another big corporate benefit is a multi-billion dollar revenue stream. Previously, you could purchase Adobe Acrobat. The license will need to be renewed from 2020. That’s hundreds of dollars per user per year forever, or until the customer leaves. There are hundreds of millions of users, so that’s billions of users a year.
You can leave Adobe. Probably from Apple. You can’t leave your car while working.
What to do, what to do?
All new cars manufactured after the mandated date will be equipped with non-bypassable software that monitors and controls user usage. In addition, these vehicles cannot be used without feature-specific software licenses, which must be updated.
what to do? Simply put, don’t buy a new car. Forever. You won’t be alone and the used car market will blossom.
Windows and “personal” computers
As I’ve said many times, computers are already going where cars are quickly going. They no longer belong to you, but belong to a software company that controls the OS and also controls the “trust chip” (Trusted Platform Module, or TPM) installed in most new computers. There are many privacy and control issues with TPM chips. The same goes for Windows itself. This will be the subject of part two of this series of articles.
But the important conclusion is: With Windows 11, you no longer need to own your own computer. When you buy a device, most of the software and data resides elsewhere, and most of the processing happens in the “cloud”, on a machine that someone controls.
Yes, back to the next thing.
Like many other things we’ve strengthened, the PC is back and the revolution has been reversed. Please stay tuned for further information.
