She stopped responding to him, she said, even though he texted and called her hundreds of times.

Ms. Dowdall, 59, started occasionally seeing a strange new message on the display in her Mercedes, about a location-based service called “mbrace.” The second time it happened, she took a photograph and searched for the name online.

“I realized, oh my God, that’s him tracking me,” Ms. Dowdall said.

      • frickineh@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This is why I’m going to drive my 2012 RAV4 until it dies or I die, whichever comes first. I’d love to switch to an EV but unless something drastically changes in the industry, I’m not paying that kind of money for a car company to spy on me. At least my phone does me the courtesy of being fairly cheap while it harvests my data.

      • smort@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Huh Mazda isn’t listed. I assume because it wasn’t tested, rather than because it’s so much better than the others

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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          11 months ago

          That’s correct. All models not listed were simply just not evaluated. You cannot trust any of them at this point. Which is just a pure fucking shame.

          I’d personally like to see them do an exhaustive research into all brands… so I can actually strictly buy the one that values me the most.

    • edric@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Can’t 100% avoid it, but your best bet is getting a base model. It will probably still have some tracking somehow, but it will be the one with the least “tech”.