OK, I think I've spotted something!

The shark-fin pod on the roof appears to contain the "telematics 4G antenna." There are 5 connectors going to it. One of them (it's almost certainly a coaxial cable) goes to the antenna. I would expect that disconnecting this would disable radio telematics without affecting much or anything else. Unfortunately, you have to remove the headliner to access it. That doesn't sound fun at all.

Now I'd like to locate the module where that cable is coming from, as that might be easier to access.

 

Another update: I think, but am not certain, that the "Telematic Control Unit Module" would serve the antenna noted above.

In a 90 (my car) it's behind the left rear quarter panel. For the 110, it's behind the left load-space trim panel.

I'd prefer to have a bit more confirmation before tearing my truck apart, and also to review any notes and instructions on removing the interior trim without damaging it, but I think I'm getting close.

 

Unfortunate side effect of the modern connected world. Perhaps you noticed, there was some anonymous shooter took a shot the other day. Within minutes, they had his name from the gun's serial number. They have the entire history of his browsing on his phone and computer, all calls and movements. This all in spite of it being protected. Firearms information is paper only, yet they still found it in under 30 minutes. Even before all this connectivity we were still being analyzed, our buying habits quantified, direct mail targeted and so on.

Back in the 90's, well before all this easy collection nonsense, Kenya spied on every call made out of the country. They had over 2,000 people show up at the telecom office every day and night. You could not get an international line unless there was an available eavesdropper. There was a big brouhaha about the NSA sucking in all our cellphone data. The government needs some kind of authority to do this. Private companies need none, like Google sucking in all your data, in spite of "Private" browsing set and so on. I could track your car, anywhere you went when I was flying electronic warfare aircraft. I could do this via the noise your ignition made and its unique profile. We could see what you typed on your keyboard unless you TEMPEST shielding on your office. You could even see what was being displayed at quite a distance with the older CRT monitors, just by its noise. Your car is a virtual cornucopia of data being leaked by different systems via electronic noise.

We will be surveilled, the data sold and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it. If somebody wants to put some resources into it. Personally, I want a blue dot representing my position with a little data bubble showing exactly what I'm buying on everybody's phone 24/7, I think we should all insist on that. Bury them in data. Besides your Defender's electrical system will wheeze out when the battery goes low and not send anything to anybody. Or...you could just go full on Amish, then your safe.

 

Interesting and scary story. But nevertheless, are we to just give up? Might as well move to China or North Korea, right? Because it's all the same everywhere, right? And there's no hope at all, right?

No, it's not all the same! And there is hope! We The People have a say! And I say no to giving up!

Companies such as JLR must comply with the law, including the law under which I demanded that they delete my info and stop selling it to others. If not, there's millions in penalties to be paid. Just ask Google, who recently paid almost $100,000,000 to California alone because they violated people's privacy in contravention of that same law. Or ask GM, who immediately stopped this behavior after they were exposed. If JLR had been included in the recent expose, we probably wouldn't be talking about this now either. Things can change for the better!

Anyway, all that discussion is a distraction from my intention: to figure out how to force JLR to stop, or how to disable telematics, and to help others who cared with the same.

I've learned more since my last few posts, and it's a little more complicated than I thought an hour ago. It may take a while, but I'll post more after I figure out a few more things.

Meanwhile, no giving up!

 

My point being, like the "Hydra" you may think that that you chopped off the head. Just grows back differently elsewhere. Allegory: One of my aircraft blew up and caught quite dramatically on fire. There was only so much I cold do, since the fire was not gong away. The only thing I could do was make it end less badly. So don't give up.

Large organizations are like amoebas. you push on them and they just squish out elsewhere. Push too hard, finds out you taste good and it eats you.

 

I guess this thread will never escape debates about how we are all doomed to an utter lack of privacy and how it's so totally futile that there's no point in resisting.

Yet: Remember the "clipper chip"? An explicit government back-door that was to be installed in essentially every electronic device? Despite fierce lobbying by 3-letter agencies, that was killed! Remember how the government demanded that Apple install back-doors into all of their devices? Apple resisted and mostly won. (That's for the average you and me, anyway. **** off enough 3-letter agencies and your data will still get reamed plenty good.)

Unfortunately, corporations have evaded the same scrutiny, drip by drip, leading to our current mess of corporate spying and monetization of personal data. But there's hope. The EU instituted some decent privacy laws. If I lived in Germany, for example, I don't think I'd have to worry about JLR surreptitiously slurping up my data. California didn't go that far, but they have something in place, at least. Companies like JLR slide under the radar, but are still subject to those laws.

Anyway, again: The point is to learn how to stop it or defeat it. And we can do it!

 

This could work ten some years ago, but not anymore. Storage is cheap, data structures are optimized multiple ways depending on use case, computing power is abundant, taxpayers are paying for everything.

There is an unfortunate side effect of this, actually - a tremendous amount of heat generated by data centers running all this, and water consumed by them. That global warming thing? It is fueled by massive flow of nothing that is being crunched 24/7, and don't get me started on AI. So, I'm afraid we're going to drown not them, but ourselves.

 

Not that I disagree with your cause (on the contrary) but, having worked with Google and alike - it is all "acceptable business risk" and "operating cost".

There was this episode when I pointed an actively exploited hole you could drive an eighteen wheeler through to them. They slept on it and then said "this affects 0.00000000000000016% of our orders, we're not gonna bother". Same here. Quick search tells that they had annual profit of $34.3 billion, if my math is right, California fine is 0.29% of that. Chump change.

Having said that... I wish what you wish could be doable. Not holding my breath, though, knowing how it's made.

 

Oh, I agree. Corporations are amoral entities that will frequently take every gray-area advantage and press every legal boundary.

But despite what you have seen in your life, don't give up!

 

I'm going to shut up and walk away soon because I'm here for fun and not for business but before I do - they always get their way, they're playing the long game. Nobody's talking about Clipper anymore, but there's this Trusted Platform Module (and "trusted" not by you, but by them), and you won't be able to run Windows 11 without it. Then you just need to remember how NSA was caught red handed introducing subtle weaknesses in, note, publicly open and reviewable encryption algorithms, and pieces of the puzzle fall into place (note peculiar timing). Clipper is back in disguise. For all we know, Clipper may have been a Duck Feature.

Those laws were neutered by two pairs of words, take your pick: "fraud protection", or "legitimate interest" (that's the euphemism for TLA there).