So how do we go about disabling telematics in our cars? Has anyone figured it out on the Defenders?

 

The following excerpts from Land Rover's privacy policy appear to apply to owners of late model Land Rovers. Does anyone know what "audio and visual information" includes?

• What Personal Information do we collect? We collect the following categories of Personal Information: Identifiers, Consumer Records, Protected Characteristics, Commercial Information, Audio and Visual Information, Internet or Network Activity Information, Geolocation Data, Marketing and Communications Information, Sensitive Personal Information, and Inferences. We explain those categories in more detail below...

• Do you sell or share my information? We sell and share the following categories of Personal Information: Identifiers, Consumer Records, Protected Characteristics, Commercial Information, Audio and Visual Information, Internet or Network Activity Information, Geolocation Data, Marketing and Communications Information, Sensitive Personal Information, and Inferences. We offer options for you to limit our selling or sharing of your information below...

• Audio and Visual Information such as call recordings and images.

https://www.landroverusa.com/privacy-policy.html

Does anyone know what "call recordings" means? Selling call recordings seems, depending on what it means, potentially a whole lot more invasive than selling driving data.

 

Here’s a couple excerpts from the PP linked above.


• Vendors. We disclose Personal Information to our vendors in connection with services they provide us, such as providing analytics, technical support, and telecommunications services. Our vendors are only allowed to use, disclose, or retain the Personal Information to provide those services.



If you do not want us to sell or share (in other words, make available for certain targeted advertising) your Personal Information, you can opt out by visiting our opt-out page or following the instructions below in the section describing your privacy rights. Additionally, consistent with our goal of offering you choices regarding your information, we are also providing you other ways you can prevent our partners from collecting your information for targeted advertising. You can use the opt outs provided by the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance. Alternatively, you can configure your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) to delete and/or control the use of cookies.



Contact Us

If you have questions or comments of any kind, or if you see anything on the Web Properties that you think is inappropriate or incorrect, please let us know by emailing us at privacy@jaguarlandrover.com, calling us at (800) 346-3493, or mailing us at:

Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC
Attn: Customer Care – Privacy Issues
100 Jaguar Land Rover Way
Mahwah, New Jersey 07495

 

So, they take and sell every last thing in every modality that they can possibly get. And it's opt-out only.

Real nice, Land Rover. Real classy of you.

 

Disable telematics ? If you find out a way how to - you will make lots of money.
However, my 2 cents, is that you can't disable it.
Here is why I think that, and how does it work:


The left hemisphere is the one that updates the vehicle, talks constantly with the vehicle and sends info 2 ways to and from the vehicle at all times. It knows everything about your car - well, pretty much everything.
Official reason: is for your own good.
The right hemisphere is the consumer one, your apps, wifi, pivi enhancements, etc. It also knows your music taste, volume you listen to, how long for, etc, etc.
Both of them gives your information to JLR.
Can you disable it ? Yes, however the consequences will be swift and expensive. The vehicle has about 96, or 98 modules... if I remember well. All very chatty, to one each other, and the telematics of course. If one loses connectivity to the others the issue will "escalate" among the other modules, up to the point that your vehicle will stop. It is how the software is written.
If you want privacy, this is not the vehicle for you. Sorry, but it is the truth. Can you opt out ? Sure ... but trusting JLR is like you would believe a hooker that she loves you.
Even if your plan WiFi plan, LandRover applications expire, and you don't renew it for a cool 500$ / year, your vehicle will still be connected and will rat you out.
JLR is one of the worst in the industry. Truth is, no one can do much about it, not currently.

 

@Mechano2020 You are correct, I would be hard pressed if there is a foolproof way to completely disable telematics in any car for that matter. It is a fact that we now live in a world where everything we do, or buy is somehow being watched and followed.

 

I think the issue with telematics is not weather or not JLR is collecting it. It's weather that information is being sold to third parties. For example, if your car captured your speeding history, and then turned that over to a State DMV, would your car registration be denied at your next annual renewal (based on a history of speeding)? Collecting information is what banks do. Giving your information without consent to third parties is fraud. It's well understood within banking what you can and can't do with information a bank gathers on depositors through its normal course of business. It will eventually be litigated (I'm guessing) what car companies can legally do to exploit information they gain on owners without consent.

 

I bet that our information is being sold to other parties, and I agree that someday this will be litigated. In this age and time, everything we do is monitored and privacy no longer exists the way we used to know privacy.

 

Thanks to the several member of this forum who have weighed in since my last message.

I don't have any greater sense of what "audio and visual information" might include, but I sense that this is an issue which may concern folks other than myself.

I did note that the president of Jaguar Land Rover of North America was, in a past life, the global CMO of LexisNexis -- a company which appears to have been associated with the GM sales of driving data to insurance companies. Whether this means anything or not is above my paygrade.

See: https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/joachim-eberhardt

 

just pull the plug from the antenna.... that should solve your problem