Carwings privacy concerns
- Thread starter solanaleaf
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The blogger's site is currently not accessible (probably more traffic than available bandwidth). When I looked at it yesterday (6/15), he had posted an update that the LEAF was no longer sending the location info on RSS feed requests.
While much of the info will not impact you, keep in mind that it did send destination location info, along with current location and vehicle speed. If your destination was "Home", that info was sent to the RSS provider, although they would not know it was your home address. Here's a link to a youtube video since his website is not currently available.
This is what you need to keep in mind, as has already been mentioned:
If you do not subscribe to RSS Feeds, this data is not being sent to said RSS feed providers.
While much of the info will not impact you, keep in mind that it did send destination location info, along with current location and vehicle speed. If your destination was "Home", that info was sent to the RSS provider, although they would not know it was your home address. Here's a link to a youtube video since his website is not currently available.
This is what you need to keep in mind, as has already been mentioned:
If you do not subscribe to RSS Feeds, this data is not being sent to said RSS feed providers.
LEAFguy said:
Didn't realize my site went down ... more popular than I thought it would be.
The new york times quoted nissan as stating that this is only for "unofficial RSS feeds", which probably means that preferred feed providers and certain partners will be able to access this data. I think this is perfectly fine, as the location based weather service i wrote up was pretty awesome, along with Recargo's prototype charging station locator.
lpickup
Well-known member
Too bad the "hole" got plugged. It took away the one thing that would actually make RSS feeds useful.
Yeah, it may seem creepy, but it only sent data to sites that you specifically signed up for. Oh well, I had a great application for an RSS feed but it will apparently not work thanks to this feature being yanked.
Yeah, it may seem creepy, but it only sent data to sites that you specifically signed up for. Oh well, I had a great application for an RSS feed but it will apparently not work thanks to this feature being yanked.
Nekota
Well-known member
lpickup said:
I'm still bummed out. I sure wish it was a user configurable option since I would like to know where my car is and I can't due to someone's irrational fear of a location. Maybe someone can figure out how to get the LEAF to twitter then it can tweet it's GPS location when asked.
lpickup
Well-known member
Nekota said:
Even on a feed by feed basis might allay fears (i.e. when you add the a specific feed you could also grant it permission (or not) to send position data). But that level of sophistication seems way beyond CARWINGS.
91040
Well-known member
This seems to be the best thread for this since I didn't want to start a new one. Not concerned about the privacy. The data is interesting.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131015-hidden-habits-your-car-is-sharing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;BBC Future said:
pachakutek
Member
I just got my LEAF this weekend, and when I was setting up CARWINGS the first that popped in my mind is... "do I really want to do this?".
Anyways, I ended up enabling it. But then I learned about the RSS oversharing at some point in the past - so it's actually reassuring that that has been "fixed"... right? - If I add a random RSS feed today to the car, CARWINGS will not overshare my location, destination, speed, and what not? right?
About people bummed about the myriad of features not being feasible now - I think that's not necessarily true.
CARWINGS still collects all that data, so it's possible for either them, or 3rd party to build them. AFAIK 3rd party can make us of the authenticated API to access some info (there is one guy that built an iphone app to connect authenticated to CARWINGS - I wonder if he can do more with that info, like request car location).
What I'm saying is that accessing that kind of info through just RSS is not the correct way to do that. The API with your login - if CARWINGS disclose that info via API - sounds a much better way.
Anyways, I ended up enabling it. But then I learned about the RSS oversharing at some point in the past - so it's actually reassuring that that has been "fixed"... right? - If I add a random RSS feed today to the car, CARWINGS will not overshare my location, destination, speed, and what not? right?
About people bummed about the myriad of features not being feasible now - I think that's not necessarily true.
CARWINGS still collects all that data, so it's possible for either them, or 3rd party to build them. AFAIK 3rd party can make us of the authenticated API to access some info (there is one guy that built an iphone app to connect authenticated to CARWINGS - I wonder if he can do more with that info, like request car location).
What I'm saying is that accessing that kind of info through just RSS is not the correct way to do that. The API with your login - if CARWINGS disclose that info via API - sounds a much better way.
Rat
Well-known member
I totally don't get all the whining about privacy, whether in this thread or the whole NSA thing. I don't do anything I'm ashamed of or worried about getting arrested for, so I don't see what all the complainers are trying to hide. The way I see it is the authorities are using it only as necessary to protect me and my loved ones from terrorists and companies like Nissan are using the info to make cars more efficient, both of which are good things. I also don't have a smart phone since I've never seen what they're good for, but I do have a cell phone with no GPS and I leave that on for safety reasons. To whatever extent my location can be determined from cell tower pings I want authorities to be able to locate me if I go over an embankment and am trapped somewhere. If the phone company or Nissan is able to use my location information for any purpose it's OK by me. I don't see anything creepy about it.
If it's the targeted advertising that bothers you, it's easy enough to insulate yourself from almost all of that. I have an ad blocker on my web browser. We never watch live TV. We record everything on the DVR and fast forward through the ads or stream through Amazon ad-free. My spam blocker on Gmail works nearly perfectly. I think I've had maybe two or three ads get through that in the last year at most. I can still get the location based services I want, like finding the nearest restaurant with my GPS unit, either the Nuvi or Garmin 60Cx and those aren't trackable, not that I would mind if anyone wanted to track them. I pay no attention to ads I see while driving, like billboards, and in fact I rarely have any money or credit cards on me when I'm out of the house unless I'm driving to a restaurant or store for the purpose of buying a specific thing. I know there's advertising in the newspaper, but I pull out all the advertising pages and section before I put on my reading glasses, so I'm not sure what is advertised in them. I'm sure I'm still seeing some ads, but it's pretty invisible to me and to the extent marketers have been able to tailor it based on my habits, I'd just as soon I get ads for things useful to me rather than stuff that isn't, like Beyonce albums or something. The whole fear of advertising thing is really avoidable by the individual with easy lifestyle choices.
If it's the targeted advertising that bothers you, it's easy enough to insulate yourself from almost all of that. I have an ad blocker on my web browser. We never watch live TV. We record everything on the DVR and fast forward through the ads or stream through Amazon ad-free. My spam blocker on Gmail works nearly perfectly. I think I've had maybe two or three ads get through that in the last year at most. I can still get the location based services I want, like finding the nearest restaurant with my GPS unit, either the Nuvi or Garmin 60Cx and those aren't trackable, not that I would mind if anyone wanted to track them. I pay no attention to ads I see while driving, like billboards, and in fact I rarely have any money or credit cards on me when I'm out of the house unless I'm driving to a restaurant or store for the purpose of buying a specific thing. I know there's advertising in the newspaper, but I pull out all the advertising pages and section before I put on my reading glasses, so I'm not sure what is advertised in them. I'm sure I'm still seeing some ads, but it's pretty invisible to me and to the extent marketers have been able to tailor it based on my habits, I'd just as soon I get ads for things useful to me rather than stuff that isn't, like Beyonce albums or something. The whole fear of advertising thing is really avoidable by the individual with easy lifestyle choices.
