Quote Originally Posted by DrGER View Post
More conspiracy theories.

When 3G data was available and the integrated data modem was provisioned with a SIM, the PPP connection was only established on-demand for Google Earth, Google destination search, Audi connect services, and myAudi on-line destinations. For example, inspection of the myAudi on-line destination request transaction in the Java source code showed no evidence that car usage/location data was sent at any time. If one didn't use any of the MMI3GP services that required internet access, the PPP connection never started (thus, no data was sent by the MMI3GP system over the internet).

Next generation MIB MMI system, OTOH, behave differently with regard to mobile data access, so what you suggest may be a thing on these platforms. --g
Agreed, MIB data collection was very intensive but even on previous generation they were collecting data, and having significant conversations about how to increase the amount of data collected and improve the quality/usefulness of the data during 3G+ redesigns. It has been a very long time and I do not recall what was being collected nor when it was being sent but it was definitely going on and I had conversations with software engineers about this specifically. It is possible that they were not doing it in all markets due to concerns about the constant evolution of data retention regulations and whatnot at that time. Also consider that the earliest MMI 3G+ design activities started late 2006 and there were many variants and significant evolution over the 6 or so years they fitted cars with it.

Never call car data collection a conspiracy theory, the amount of money that every OEM has made from data collection over the past 10 years is insane. Everyday people are just starting to realize how bad it is when they finally figure out that their car insurance rates skyrocketed because their car insurance company purchased their driving habits from another third party like LexisNexis and decided that they were driving too fast, or making to many "hard stops", or accelerating too hard, etc etc etc. It has been going on for well over a decade (some OEM's have been collecting and selling since the 2000's like GM with OnStar) and it just barely starts to hit the news in the past year or so. Maybe people don't care that much because they are already giving these third party data brokers all that data and more with all of the apps they install on their dumbohones... I don't know... The world resembles that movie "Idiocracy" more and more everyday!

All of the OEM's claim the data is "anonymized" and that is complete BS. For anything made in the late 2010's the data always includes some level of GPS location data. How many people park at your house every night and drive to your place of work regularly? Using other publicly available information allows the data to be connected to you despite it being "anonymized". Cars taking "diagnostic" pictures from the front facing cameras that are used for lane guidance and sending them home... Lol. Garage nudists beware xD

Anyway, I've been doing "stealth" deletes on infotainment connectivity for people for quite some time now. There seems to be no limit to the number of people who aren't comfortable with some corporation selling their location, driving habits, connected device information, music listening habits, etc to literally anyone who will pay for it.