The Feds Can Access The Private Data On Your Phone Through Your Car

GURPS · May 11, 2021

According to a report from The Intercept, one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the U.S., the Customs And Border Protection, has now found a convenient back door to siphon much of the information from the fortress of your smartphone: your car.

Even though your car tries to keep you physically safe with airbags and ABS and seatbelts, it’s shockingly inept when it comes to keeping your data safe from the prying eyes of police agencies, per the report from The Intercept.

As if that weren’t bad enough, our dumb cars are letting the CBP into our smartphones while we constantly and unknowingly pass data along. All the CBP needed was a few hardware kits from a Swedish IT firm called MSAB:

...[Part] of the draw of vacuuming data out of cars is that so many drivers are oblivious to the fact that their cars are generating so much data in the first place, often including extremely sensitive information inadvertently synced from smartphones.
Indeed, MSAB marketing materials promise cops access to a vast array of sensitive personal information quietly stored in the infotainment consoles and various other computers used by modern vehicles — a tapestry of personal details akin to what CBP might get when cracking into one’s personal phone.