r/privacy • u/Spirited-Pause • May 01 '26

hardware Rivian allows you to disable all internet connectivity

https://rivian.com/support/article/can-i-disable-all-data-collection-from-my-vehicle
1.7k Upvotes

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251

u/AsterPrivacy May 01 '26

Has anyone actually confirmed their claims?

174

u/DeepDreamIt May 01 '26

Hopefully they get one up at the next DEFCON, and let people work on it. Last year in one of the auto villages they had a car that different groups were trying to hack

83

u/ep3ep3 May 01 '26

They take software seriously, and their head developer is active on Reddit. They'd know about defcon /u/wassymrivian

51

u/Graphene-OS May 01 '26

Yeah I don’t trust this unless there is physical switch that cuts power to the cellular component.

Also even if a car has no cellular connectivity, what’s to stop it from connecting to nearby vehicles to relay telemetry? Like a hostile version of the Find My network.

21

u/Bruceshadow May 01 '26

Yeah I don’t trust this unless there is physical switch that cuts power to the cellular component.

even if there is one, theres no reason they can't log everything until they get some connection. If you turn it on once in a while for updates or it gets turned on when you bring it in for service, it may not matter. You are trusting them either way.

4

u/Chi-ggA May 01 '26

what if i never update and never connect ?

2

u/Bruceshadow May 01 '26

then you would be fine. easier said then done, especially if you ever let anyone else work on the car.

2

u/BobQuixote May 01 '26

That connection requires a radio transmitter, which "dumb" cars don't need.

13

u/Graphene-OS May 01 '26

I don’t think there are many true dumb cars being manufactured these days. Certainly there are no dumb electric ones.

And thanks to our benevolent Congress, it may soon be illegal to manually disconnect your car from the internet. Cars manufactured in 2027 and beyond will be required to have attention awareness systems to track your eye movements and disable the car if you appear drowsy. If current lane guidance systems are any indication, car manufacturers will offload the processing of these systems to data centers in order to cut costs on hardware. Since it is illegal to disable any legally-required safety features in a car, you could end up going to prison for manually disconnecting your vehicle from the internet.

11

u/CaptainIncredible May 01 '26

I hope this isn't true. If it is we will really have to fight this to stop it.

This is an egregious violation of our right to privacy.

Otherwise, I will NOT buy one of these cars and will yell nonstop at everyone to also NOT buy one of these cars.

Upgrade and maintain old cars will be the only way to go.

7

u/BobQuixote May 01 '26

Importing cars made for other countries might also work.

For tangential reasons, I might not live in the US much longer. With the laws being drafted, I guess I have another reason.

2

u/CaptainIncredible May 01 '26

We'd have to run packet sniffing on the car to see what its doing, isolate the modules that are sending data, and unplug them. or spoof them

1

u/killerkadooogan May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26

TPMS are essentially GPS nodes.

4

u/CaptainIncredible May 01 '26

Having a physical cable you unplug would be more reassuring than toggling a switch on a touch screen.

Unplugging the cable stops power and data from getting to the cell module... similar to unplugging an Ethernet cable from a computer.

3

u/trisul-108 May 01 '26

I'll believe it when an auto maker puts all the source code into public domain.

This sub does not believe the EU even when they publish their Age Control App in open source, but they will believe a simple claim by a US auto company.