Factory Tracking Devices in Mavericks

[Skyline]

I hope you smashed your computer after typing this (after removing hard drive) and tossed your burner cell phone and relocated to a new safe house.

Surveillance capitalism transfers the digital infrastructure from we have to a thing that has us. Some people don't care, while others do and try to minimize the impact of that. Neither group of people are wrong, basically, each of its own...

FYI, I do sell my old devices, don't smash them, since there are ways to sanitize them. I am certain that with @whitef background, he/she does the same...

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[mav_kev]

I'm in the I don't care camp - and the I don't think I'm important/interesting enough for "the man" to watch camp. Do as you will though

 

[whitef]

Surveillance capitalism transfers the digital infrastructure from we have to a thing that has us. Some people don't care, while others do and try to minimize the impact of that. Neither group of people are wrong, basically, each of its own...

FYI, I do sell my old devices, don't smash them, since there are ways to sanitize them. I am certain that with @whitef background, he/she does the same...

That is correct.

 

[NoVaJimmy]

If you open up your Ford pass app it will show you the address your truck is at. My mom's car got stolen Monday and now I'm so glad I have the ability to locate my truck.

Thieves are apparently keen on where to locate the telematics unit, I read an account of someone's Maverick being stolen in the facebook group and apparently the thieves had ripped out the telematics unit leaving him with a random last location according the the app.

 

[uga]

Forum members, please do NOT post any info on the location, crooks read the forums to !

 

[Fattdogs]

Forum members, please do NOT post any info on the location, crooks read the forums to !

Well, you can already find it with a quick google search... Also not like it's not in the car's manual which you can find online as well

 

[billygoat]

T

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.

Thank you for this informative write up. Pulled the plug in mine. Crazy.

 

[notfast]

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.

There is an ordering option for "4G LTE WI-FI HOTSPOT REMOVAL". Maybe just a chip shortage era thing, and I doubt it eliminates the telematics. The rest of the monroney for vehicles with this option still list "FordPass Connect" and "FordPass App" etc.

One example is this one:
https://www.windowsticker.forddirect.com/windowsticker.pdf?vin=3FTTW8E32PRA35100

Ford telematics go way back on certain vehicles. Ford Fusion hybrids and Energis for example have had them since the second generation hit the road in 2013. In 2016, Ford reported that drivers drove an average of 13,500 miles annually, of which half were in EV mode.

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.

A couple years ago, my friend who is a repo man went to go repo a Tesla. He was on the phone with a Tesla rep, who told him exactly where the car was. He pulled up to it at some office complex parking lot and verified the VIN.

The Tesla rep unlocked the doors, then backed the car out and lined it up with his truck. The rep said the vehicle was in "tow/transport" mode, so it could be driven for something like up to 10mph for up to 3 miles without a key, presumably so it could be loaded/unloaded from a truck and maneuvered around a storage lot.

He figures it's not too much longer before cars up for repo will just drive themselves to the nearest dealership or holding area and he'll be out of a job.

It wasn't much long ago that Tesla sent an over-the-air update to temporarily allow vehicles in south Florida to discharge their batteries to a true 100%, thereby giving several dozen miles of extra range for evacuation purposes.

 

[Skyline]

Well, you can already find it with a quick google search... Also not like it's not in the car's manual which you can find online as well

There's also a Maverick fuse diagram by @Milous in this forum in PDF form, so the "cat is out of the the bag" so to speak...

Thanks @whitef and @Fattdogs, pulled the #11 fuse and have no issues with driving the Maverick....

 

[FordDiehard]

I hope you smashed your computer after typing this (after removing hard drive) and tossed your burner cell phone and relocated to a new safe house.

Jason Bourne lives on!

 

[ashido67]

Your cell phone can literally control your truck from basically anywhere and track it

They absolutely have the capability to over rule you and see it too

 

[dcs12345]

He figures it's not too much longer before cars up for repo will just drive themselves to the nearest dealership or holding area and he'll be out of a job.

your friend isn’t wrong….Ford recently patented that very type of thing

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43126498/ford-patent-autonomous-systems-vehicle-repossession/

 

[Metro12]

 

[Padre]

Yes, it has the capacity to report many data points back to Ford. Oil Life and tire pressure are the two that the customer can easily see in the app and online. There are hundreds of other data points as well, most of which you would never see. Your dealership can see the error codes your truck throws remotely for example. You can as well in the app, but it is mostly useful to the service department to diagnose and see the history of problems you might be having.

You can locate your truck via GPS anytime you want via the app. Ford makes it clear that this is not intended to be used to track a stolen vehicle, but much like Apple Air Tags and Tile brand tile trackers being used to track vehicles, I am sure 99% of Maverick owners would sure as hell be tracking their stolen truck (and providing the info to the cops) via the FordPass app.

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.

 

[Saxapl]

1. AM radio only-ok by me. Never have the radio on anyways.

2. No power windows, door locks, seats, etc-absolutely. Who wants those?

3. No power steering-meh. Take it leave it.

4. No backup camera-yeah, that should go away. Unnecessary expense.

5. No air conditioning-woah! Let’s not get crazy here.

5. No back seats and back doors-now that is just silly talk.

6. No bedliners or tonneau covers-but how would I turn my cheap truck into an expensive truck?

7. No LED headlights-can’t even say if I have this.

8. No turbo, much less Hybrid engine-hampster on a wheel?

9. No bluetooth, Apple Car Play, Android Car Play-yeah, its am only.

10. Lest I forget - no turn signal stalks-oh like a Tesla. Now it is cool!

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