Factory Tracking Devices in Mavericks

[Saxapl]

My salesmen told me most thieves are smart enough to factory reset the Sync system so that your phone is cleared and you can't track it for very long.

I think I saw some Hyundai and Kia insurance is being dropped because they can be stolen with a USB. So….we are better off with big brother?

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[James K]

The Maverick being the first new truck I have purchased since 2004, the question occurred to me, this being 2023, does Ford install trackers in it's vehicles?

I'm a snowbird in FL and the Ford ap has my Fl address when I'm down here and my WNY address when I'm up north, so it must.

 

[BrianA]

It does not have to be an all or nothing choice....

Welcome to the 21st Century World of Technology. I am sure most people on the forum with Mavericks would rather have the following:
1. AM radio only, 2. No power windows, door locks, seats, etc., 3. No power steering, 4. No backup camera, 5. No air conditioning, 5. No back seats and back doors, 6. No bedliners or tonneau covers, 7. No LED headlights, 8. No turbo, much less Hybrid engine, 9. No bluetooth, Apple Car Play, Android Car Play, 10. Lest I forget - no turn signal stalks and the list goes on and on. Go back to the 50-60's and for the most part, there you are.

Also, I have worked for companies who REQUIRED gps devices in their company vehicles so they could keep track of them. Based on the above, I guess they could not have anybody working for them with a company vehicle. No one hates big brother more than me, but, let's face it, we are at that point and the satellites above us know more about us than we know about ourselves. Sorry, I will take the technology

 

[Timothyd]

I've done quite a lot of work on this in my security research role and have issued the following guidance for our fleet of corporate owned Ford vehicles.

• Ford engages in invasive tracking of customer vehicles via the on-board telematics and via the "FordPass" mobile applications.
• Ford's Terms of Service and Privacy policy are end-user hostile and unacceptable..
• Do not accept the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy presented by Ford Motor Company.
• Do not install any Ford sourced mobile applications on company owned devices. We strongly discourage the use of Ford mobile applications on personal devices.

My testing showed that disabling the "convenience" features in the car menu DID NOT stop the cellular radio from being active. I believe that Ford still tracks the vehicle but does not make the data visible to the end user or the dealerships.

On a Maverick, you can pull fuse 11 from the fuse panel under the glovebox. This powers off the 'telematics control module' and stops the tracking. Additionally, if you have the dash apart you can unplug the TCM completely, It is a free standing module with no co-dependencies. Somewhere in Ford land, there is a group of engineers that understand the pure evil of this these tracking / monetization policies and intentionally made it easy to disable the TCM. Kudos to them for doing the right thing.

Undoing that will cause. you to not be able to start your car with your phone, see your tire pressures and a handful of other useless 'features' that Ford offers as compensation for monetizing your life. You dealer won't receive your mileage to bug you about the oil changes that you've already done.

A few other notes.

• If you're interested in what some of the dealer sees from the TCU, you can go to motorcraftservice.com and purchase a 72 hour subscription to the tech info (super useful if you need wiring diagrams, etc). From there you can view non-sensitive telematic data. No location or anything. FoMoCo keeps the juicy stuff for themselves and the 'marketing partners.'
• Many of you will come back with the argument of "I have nothing to hide,' or 'you're carrying a phone that tracks you anyway.' Both of these responses make you sound foolish. Here's where we're headed, largely based on every auto maker's own forward looking statements to investors:
  • First, how about behavior tracking / curation based on location. Are you ready to have a pop up on your car screen that says "Hello Mr. Smith. We've noticed that you visit the liquor store regularly and have notified your health insurer.?" How about "Mr Smith, you seem to be at the adult theater, we've notified your wife's council?"
  • Then, driving habits. Ford's current software has a soon to be enabled feature that can send your driving behavior straight to your insurance company. Brake late...miss a stop sign, go to fast when passing? That now costs money.
  • As for your mobile computer that happens to occasionally make / receive calls, you are probably correct. It's probably doing quite a lot of tracking. All of this tracking, apart from cell tower triangulation, is completely avoidable by the owner of the device. Or put another way, entered into voluntarily and consented to by you. It doesn't have to be this way.

Sorry for the long post, but I hate to see everyone just give in to invasive tracking. It's going to end badly, and is preventable.

Thanks for the long post

 

[TedTX]

Teach on security brother. He is being prudent not paranoid.

 

[JimParker256]

I want the little flags that popped up for turn signals

We had those on the '53 VW "Kombi" van in Brazil... It had well over 400,000 km on it when it was passed on to us. Loaded up with our family of five and "stuff" for a weekend, it would not go up the mountain even in 1st gear. We had to turn around a back up the hill (reverse was a lower ratio than first). Even with that, my brother and I would have to push on the front of the Kombi to get it up the steepest portions. Made that trip at least a dozen times in the Kombi (reversing and pushing every time) before we finally replaced it with a Ford Corsel sedan. That car would actually just drive up the hill - amazing!

The "good old days" weren't always as "good" as we nostalgically remember... We tend to forget the bad stuff and only remember the good.

 

[Hardening2753]

I've done quite a lot of work on this in my security research role and have issued the following guidance for our fleet of corporate owned Ford vehicles.

• Ford engages in invasive tracking of customer vehicles via the on-board telematics and via the "FordPass" mobile applications.
• Ford's Terms of Service and Privacy policy are end-user hostile and unacceptable..
• Do not accept the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy presented by Ford Motor Company.
• Do not install any Ford sourced mobile applications on company owned devices. We strongly discourage the use of Ford mobile applications on personal devices.

My testing showed that disabling the "convenience" features in the car menu DID NOT stop the cellular radio from being active. I believe that Ford still tracks the vehicle but does not make the data visible to the end user or the dealerships.

On a Maverick, you can pull fuse 11 from the fuse panel under the glovebox. This powers off the 'telematics control module' and stops the tracking. Additionally, if you have the dash apart you can unplug the TCM completely, It is a free standing module with no co-dependencies. Somewhere in Ford land, there is a group of engineers that understand the pure evil of this these tracking / monetization policies and intentionally made it easy to disable the TCM. Kudos to them for doing the right thing.

Undoing that will cause. you to not be able to start your car with your phone, see your tire pressures and a handful of other useless 'features' that Ford offers as compensation for monetizing your life. You dealer won't receive your mileage to bug you about the oil changes that you've already done.

A few other notes.

• If you're interested in what some of the dealer sees from the TCU, you can go to motorcraftservice.com and purchase a 72 hour subscription to the tech info (super useful if you need wiring diagrams, etc). From there you can view non-sensitive telematic data. No location or anything. FoMoCo keeps the juicy stuff for themselves and the 'marketing partners.'
• Many of you will come back with the argument of "I have nothing to hide,' or 'you're carrying a phone that tracks you anyway.' Both of these responses make you sound foolish. Here's where we're headed, largely based on every auto maker's own forward looking statements to investors:
  • First, how about behavior tracking / curation based on location. Are you ready to have a pop up on your car screen that says "Hello Mr. Smith. We've noticed that you visit the liquor store regularly and have notified your health insurer.?" How about "Mr Smith, you seem to be at the adult theater, we've notified your wife's council?"
  • Then, driving habits. Ford's current software has a soon to be enabled feature that can send your driving behavior straight to your insurance company. Brake late...miss a stop sign, go to fast when passing? That now costs money.
  • As for your mobile computer that happens to occasionally make / receive calls, you are probably correct. It's probably doing quite a lot of tracking. All of this tracking, apart from cell tower triangulation, is completely avoidable by the owner of the device. Or put another way, entered into voluntarily and consented to by you. It doesn't have to be this way.

Sorry for the long post, but I hate to see everyone just give in to invasive tracking. It's going to end badly, and is preventable.

Thanks for the fuse and module location. I will be pulling those if my truck ever gets built. Only reason I was going to use the app was to remote start but I'm going to buy the physical remote start module and attach it to the back of the OBD so I can remote start with the key instead.

 

[Michaelkov]

Thanks Guys! Just wanted to know in case the "men in black" start looking for me! LOL!

They've already interviewed you at the station...you just don't "remember"

 

[Oscarcat]

Did you see that Ford just recently put in a patent application for the tech to be able to remotely repossess vehicles? Both via "annoying" the customer who fell behind on payments (have the radio scream at full volume a siren noise whenever powered on, disable all heat and cooling features, etc....), as well as having the vehicle literally self-drive itself to a slightly different location so a tow truck can get to it more easily for a tow.

I had a rental Kia sedan for 7 days - I think it was a 2022 K5, similar to a Toyota Camry and Chevy Malibu LT. The last day of the rental, a message popped up on the display to the effect the ignition would be disabled in X hours and minutes which pretty much corresponded to the end of the contract rental period. It only appeared once but this is where things are headed. What if I had a flat tire or ran out of gas? Or had an emergency and had to drive to the hospital? Or traffic was backed up due to construction or an accident?

 

[JimParker256]

I had a rental Kia sedan for 7 days - I think it was a 2022 K5, similar to a Toyota Camry and Chevy Malibu LT. The last day of the rental, a message popped up on the display to the effect the ignition would be disabled in X hours and minutes which pretty much corresponded to the end of the contract rental period. It only appeared once but this is where things are headed. What if I had a flat tire or ran out of gas? Or had an emergency and had to drive to the hospital? Or traffic was backed up due to construction or an accident?

That's where the lawyers get richer...

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