Posted on 07/13/2020 8:20:40 AM PDT by texas booster
A UK man who woke up one morning to discover his bank account being charged for satnav services linked to a car he'd sold months previously has expressed his frustration at Mazda and TomTom over the strange affair.
Ben Rose owned a Mazda CX-5 until late last year. His vehicle included a dashboard-mounted in-car entertainment (ICE) suite powered by TomTom, which later proved to be the source of some strange goings-on that cost him money (since refunded) and made him fear that his personal data had been saved by the car and was now allowing someone else to bill him for the in-car satnav.
In December 2019 Rose sold his Mazda. He told The Register: “After arriving at the car dealer I joked with my children that I was using the ‘self destruct’ button on the car as I dug out the option to wipe all personal data. This is intended to clear out stored phone numbers, recent destinations, home address details. Essentially a factory reset before passing on to the next owner.”
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Rose had described to The Register how he used the in-car screen to set up his annual subscription to TomTom after he first bought the Mazda.
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The car, he told us, sat on the dealer’s online listings page for months as the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed market demand for cars. Eventually Rose forgot about it – until earlier this month he noticed his debit card had been billed by TomTom.
Rose was stunned: “I got another email from TomTom about the ‘World’ services I had purchased. I hadn't. These services are for a sat nav device I don't have that's permanently fitted in a car I no longer own.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.com ...
Lesson learned by Mr. Rose. Scrub your auto, and all other Internet of Things, of your personal data before ditching the computer/car/refrigerator/phone.
And then try to remember every account that you used to sign up for a service, or gave permission for location tracking or who-knows-what.
Our data lives forever, and is for sale forever in this brave new world.
When I rent cars now, I notice that previous destinations entered into the NAV system are still there, not to mention other phones they were connected to.
Better yet, do not buy things things that want to connect to the internet unless they have a good reason to do so. Streaming stick: yes, that needs the internet. The fridge: No. Back when computers were the size of refrigerators, refrigerators worked just fine without them. You do not need that feature. Also, when you do connect a new device to your network, do so using the guest login. You do not want untrusted devices poking around your trusted equipment.
Rule #1.
Never give a bank account info. Use a credit card or, better yet, force them to bill you even if it costs more.
I have also started using the one-time credit card numbers for some purchases, but those are tied to a bank account. Not sure if I will keep using them.
There must be more thought put into this automation other than “buyer beware”.
We know that Comcast has been busted for monetizing user data - without the users knowledge or explicit approval. Probably all of the ISPs do so.
Looks like there is a market for an affordable secure router, not made in China, that can replace the ISP units.
People get charged for stuff they shouldn’t. Happens all the time. I don’t see what makes this particularly newsworthy.
Amen. When I got married that was the first financial rule a I worked out with my wife. She had all her regular bills set up to let the entity pull money straight from her accounts. I told her 'if you give them the power to draw directly from your account they can clear you out, even if an obvious mistake, now you need to fight like hell to get it back. Meanwhile, you don't have that money. If you use a credit card you can dispute the charge and they are the ones who have to fight back and not with us but with someone their own size. And during the fight, we still have our money.'
But most people have no idea just how many times they have given out access to their lives via the Internet. Mainly why I posted it.
Fair enough and it generated some good comments. I’m not a self-appointed thread cop (like some Freepers, unfortunately) so post away!
Rental companies really should be doing wipes of the computer just like when they wash it between rentals.
As for when you get rid of a car, people need to understand how membership renewal works. If you throw your phone in the garbage but never call the company to cancel you still get billed. He signed up for the service and never canceled, how are they supposed to know he got rid of the car.
Back in the ‘70s, a company I worked for bought a used IBM System 32. It came with straw still stuck to it here and there. When we got inside, we had a Holy Crap moment when we discovered it contained the full General Ledger of some ranching outfit in Colorado. We marveled at the foolishness of it but considered that it was early in the game and people didn’t realize the danger.
If the guy gets lost so many times that he needs a GPS, he deserves what happens to him.
"Computers Don't Argue!" by Gordon R Dickson - Analog Magazine.
Précis: A Book Club (remember them?) error escalates from a dispute to a Small Claims Court to Felony Court to Death Row. Key word to whole thing is "Kidnapped" and while some have found it amusing, I regard it as chilling!
I keep getting both written & phone solicitations to continue my ‘factory warranties’ on my vehicles. Another phone robocall today,
A. 1979 Buick station wagon bought from private party used in Aug 1981. Now has about 218,000 miles on it.
B. 1976 1 ton Chevy dually truck bought from private party used in April 1986. Now has over 348,000 on it.
Still driving both.
NEVER had ANY warranty on either one.
Owned only one car in my entire life that had a warranty- New 1965 Pontiac station wagon I bought new in Feb 1965. I put OVER 444,000 miles on that car before I sold it to a guy in Sweden who restored the exterior. Running gear was just fine.
This warranty extension crap is a total scam.
I do not use the router built into my cable modem. I have it disabled and I use a Netgear router. In the past, I have used 3rd party FW, but I have to admit being lax with this one. I am not aware of netgear being seriously compromised, but I could certainly be wrong.
Having a HD is not going to impact data collection. Everything going through that router/modem goes to your ISP, and they are doing the data collection there. The only thing I can think of is if you have DVR from that provider. That could the purpose of the HD.
What you need to do is use a VPN. That will prevent your ISP from spying on your browsing habits.
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