Does anyone know about the legality of removing the built-in sim cards from your car, specifically in Australia?
I don’t intend on using any car smart-features when I get one. For context, I’ve never owned a car. When I do get one though, I intend to remove the sim card to prevent the car’s location from being constantly tracked. All I care about in terms a cars functionality is a radio, a CD drive (Yes, I use CD’s), and Bluetooth audio, so I don’t think removing the sim card should affect this much, if at all. Any knowledge and advice would be appreciated, thankyou!
Update: What I was referring to is an eSim, which appears not to be in the form of a physical card. Even so, if possible, I would like to disable the functionality of this eSim assuming the car I purchase has one in-built. From my research, I cannot find anything that explicitly forbids disabling or removing Sims.
If it’s a newer car, it’s unlikely that it will even have a physical sim and instead use esim.
Source: did work for a major automaker and talked to people on the teams involved
Find a car that isn’t supported for network features anymore is my primary suggestion. (Using the 3g network or before)
Thanks, I didn’t know the eSims weren’t physical cards.
Btw, 3G network is shutting down extremely soon for both Optus and Telstra (and providers using their networks), so I won’t be able to do that with any future car. Telstra is going on August 31, Optus is going in September. Your phone probably isn’t locked to 3G, but even if your phone supports 4G and/or 5G but does not support a technology called “VoLTE”, you may not be able to call emergency services after the 3G closure date. Both Telstra and Optus have provided an option to easily check if your phone is compatible after the closure. Using either Optus, Telstra, or other providers using their network, you can text 3 to the number 3498 and they will send you an automated message telling you whether your phone will be affected after the closure or not.
https://www.optus.com.au/support/mobiles-tablets-wearables/important-changes-3g
https://www.telstra.com.au/support/mobiles-devices/3g-closure
I doubt any modern car with those features have a physical sim card you can remove. They are probably all using some sort of esim. On some cars the antennas can be unplugged but that depends on the specific model. If you’re unlucky, you will not even be able to remove the tracking features at all because they are integrated with other components needed to function.
With regards to the legality of that, I unfortunately cant help you there. Probably best to search for local cases or ask a local lawyer.
Your best option in probably buing a used car thats old enogh not to track you. Hope that helps a bit
As others have said it will likely be an ESIM or similar solution because there isn’t a need for the manufacturer to support physical SIMs.
Regarding being tracked though, Australia has ANPR just like most other developed countries, you will be trackable even if your car was just a Flintstones car with a numberplate.
I’d also add if you’ve got a phone in your pocket, that’s just as trackable
This is more about the car maker harvesting data, rather than just tracking the car. Car makers have been (quietly) building more tech into their cars to collect data for the purposes of selling it to third parties. It’s effectively the enshittification of cars.
I’m interested in this topic as well. I know I’m being tracked on my phone, but I’m much more confident my phone manufacturer is not selling/giving my data to police or insurance companies. Those are who I’m concerned with tracking me.
Apple is the manufacturer who makes the biggest hoo-ha over privacy, yet they gave user data to the police 90% of the time (Google was surprisingly lower at 80%)
Plus if you have a subscription to a mobile cellular network, as basically everyone with a phone does, that will also be constantly tracking you (and I believe also directly available to the police).
That’s all without going into whether you trust every single third party app on your phone and every website you visit.
You sort of left out a lot of context with that statistic that the article did include. Apple gets significantly fewer requests because the data they have is far less useful, that is generally a plus.
Cellular location data from the provider generally requires a warrant unless there are exigent circumstances. There has been a lot of controversy recently about warrants being granted that are too broad, the “every phone in this wide area” thing, but they are still warrants being granted by courts vs direct access.
That sort of “tell me every phone in the vicinity of this location” is the sort of request that Google typically has the data to fulfill and Apple generally does not (though the cell provider might).
I can’t speak to the legality, but if you own the vehicle 100%, I can’t see removing parts from the vehicle being illegal as long as they don’t impinge on road safety.
I would recommend removing more than just the SIM card, if the radios have their own fuse, take the fuse out, or physically remove the radios themselves.
Yep. It’s your car to do with it what you want. The ADRs (Australian Design Rules) only apply at point of sale. Once it’s yours, it merely needs meet roadworthy requirements. As long as you keep a functioning speedo, wipers and lights, you can rip out every bit of electronics in the car.
You’d better be leaving your phone at home every time you drive that car or you’ve defeated the point
Not necessarily true. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good enough. Limiting the number of organizations that have your data is a good thing. There’s no reason the car vendor needs that data
Why would a car manufacturer give you cellular service for free? If you don’t pay for subscriptions, surely they’re not seeing any of your car’s data?
The telemetry from your car has value, plus if they control your infotainment system they can constantly try to upsell you to subscribe or buy other features.
Not to mention when we’re talking about on a car manufacturer, they can negotiate fleet-wide data access for all the vehicles. With an agreement with the manufacturer that if the user actually buys data access for themselves, they split the profit with the carrier
