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One of the cars I rented (A Ford using the Sync console) had bluetooth contacts synced from the previous renter. It was just sitting there: names, phone numbers
by yardie 6y ago
One of the cars I rented (A Ford using the Sync console) had bluetooth contacts synced from the previous renter. It was just sitting there: names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses. Being privacy conscious I deleted the contacts and the 20+ bluetooth profiles stored in the console.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoI am always shocked when people make these sorts of pairings with devices they don't even own. I often see employees pairing person phones with corporate fleet vehicles too. It's unfortunately an example of where people rank convenience over privacy almost every single time.
- spookthesunset 6y agoI mean, most people wouldn’t suspect all their contacts would get copied over to the rental car. Before CarPlay I’d routinely “just hit okay” my way though pairing my phone to the rental car.
- FreakyT 6y agoAgreed, this seems more like a UX problem than a "people don't value privacy" problem. No reasonable person would ever expect that connecting your phone to a car's wireless audio system would transfer all your contacts -- but that's Bluetooth for you!
- calvano915 6y agoEvery phone I've ever had on every car system I've ever paired to via Bluetooth has requested permission for contact sync before it would happen. Windows Phone and Android. Perhaps iOS works differently.
- yardie 6y agoIt's the same for iOS. But, I'm also guilty, most users configure their bluetooth while leaving the parking lot. If you're reading the request you aren't looking at the road, and vice versa. I've been quick to press OK before fully reading what the car is asking simply because the car and the phone are asking similar questions.
- zerkten 6y agoI agree that it's primarily a UX problem driven by the context. Someone designing the UX might not fully appreciate this, or be told to optimize for the best experience in particular situations. Someone has just rented a car and is likely in unfamiliar surroundings. I guess some renters will renting regularly, but let's assume not. The want to hit the road while getting their seat in the right place, fixing mirror positions, familiarizing themselves with the dash, etc. They also want to listen to some podcasts and in the back of the head they think they need to let someone know of their arrival time when they are closer to the destination. The fumble through the BT connection menu while multi-tasking. They are always going to do what's most expedient unless they are security conscious and know about this issue. Their contacts get picked up. This is the manufacturer optimizing for the car being a single person machine. They often don't support multiple family members sharing a car. It's interesting to see how some sales people handle this situation when giving a test drive. Many are aware of the issue because there was one customer who spent time clearing things up before the test drive. Can this be fixed? Technically, yes. It won't be fixed because manufacturers don't seem to care. The only option is for Apple or Google to make it part of qualification of some kind for CarPlay or the Android equivalent.
- Taek 6y agoPeople aren't at fault here. These systems are deliberately designed to put the user in a compromised position. Designed by behavioral experts using techniques the business world has been building up for decades.
- pa7ch 6y agoAgreed, the expected outcome of pairing your phone is that it just streams music to the stereo like an aux jack. Its extremely unexpected that it will steal your contact and private messages.
- gnfargbl 6y agoI'm not sure that most people would see taking a copy of their phone contacts as a serious invasion of privacy. Maybe your mind (and the mind of many HN readers) quickly skips to the various social engineering and metadata attacks that such a dataset could enable, but the average guy on the street is more likely to think "what are you going to do, call my hairdresser?"
- m4rtink 6y agoWith a phone contact book it's not about you, it's about protecting the personal phone numbers others entrusted you with. If you are careless and loose them (for example by using any of these "modern" IM systems that insist on getting all your contacts so you don't have to add people you know one by one) it's you fault friends will be getting advertising phone call at 3 in the morning or worse.
- m463 6y agoI just think they have to be educated.
- vkou 6y ago> I am always shocked when people make these sorts of pairings with devices they don't even own. I'm not, because of all the random technology trivia and footgun crap that 'everyone' should know, any random person is not going to know a lot of it.
- m463 6y agoMany of them by default upload all the contacts. The iphone in the beginning would do it, but eventually they changed it to ask during bluetooth pairing.
- Kenji 6y agoSo he was correct in being completely unconcerned about uploading his contacts - after all, you deleted them all without doing anything malicious ;)
- mixmastamyk 6y ago"Deleting" is probably not good enough in modern devices with cheap copious storage.