Disabling GM's ability to track my CT5V Blackwing

[Sphinx]

I don't care about Onstar, and I don't want GM sending me emails based on my vehicles mileage or other reports. It's creepy. GM/Onstar has no business knowing where my car is or what I'm doing.

That being said... is there a fuse I can pull, or antenna I can disconnect, or anything else that's an easy job in order to disable however my car is communicating with General Motors?

I actually agree with you 100%. For GM cars equipped with Super Cruise, for example, GM absolutely uses and tracks your eye movements and will record and use that against the owner, if there's ever a lawsuit.

I had a Spark EV, once upon a time, and it was creepy as hell to get emails telling me how many times I hard accelerated/braked, which I did quite often in that car - 325ftlb torque out of a front wheel drive was quite entertaining.

I don't know about GMs, but other OEMs do provide the option to opt-out of various data tracking tools, which may be used for harmless reasons or your data may be sold - who knows. But be warned that they tell you that your user experience may be affected. This is big issue for cars that get OTA software updates (think Teslas).

And yes, I use the privacy settings on my phone and for each app, and I don't accept all cookies from websites. I care about my privacy and will take steps to protect it. Not doing a perfect job, but I'm not ignoring the problem either.

 

[rdollie]

I actually agree with you 100%. For GM cars equipped with Super Cruise, for example, GM absolutely uses and tracks your eye movements and will record and use that against the owner, if there's ever a lawsuit.

I had a Spark EV, once upon a time, and it was creepy as hell to get emails telling me how many times I hard accelerated/braked, which I did quite often in that car - 325ftlb torque out of a front wheel drive was quite entertaining.

I don't know about GMs, but other OEMs do provide the option to opt-out of various data tracking tools, which may be used for harmless reasons or your data may be sold - who knows. But be warned that they tell you that your user experience may be affected. This is big issue for cars that get OTA software updates (think Teslas).

And yes, I use the privacy settings on my phone and for each app, and I don't accept all cookies from websites. I care about my privacy and will take steps to protect it. Not doing a perfect job, but I'm not ignoring the problem either.

You can opt in or out of privacy settings with OnStar and the Smart Driver program. As far as I know, GM isn't providing your data to police or insurance w/o your permission.

 

[jrhammer]

I don't care about Onstar, and I don't want GM sending me emails based on my vehicles mileage or other reports. It's creepy. GM/Onstar has no business knowing where my car is or what I'm doing.

That being said... is there a fuse I can pull, or antenna I can disconnect, or anything else that's an easy job in order to disable however my car is communicating with General Motors?

For the last few weeks, the BW CT5 ran with the onstar fuse pulled. These are observations and inferences:
GPS no longer works
Microphone no longer works
Therefore it seems the lazy GM electrical engineers rely on the onstar module for GPS and some communication rather than developing their own circuitry for these functions.

As mentioned in another post, apple car play works for navigation. This is better than the built in navigation as google maps and apple maps update regularly.

Voice commands for outgoing telephone calls do not work. When making calls, one uses the cell phone microphone.

There may be other features that do not work but they are not obvious.

It is possible that no software updates take place without onstar module working.

 

[revvhigh]

For the last few weeks, the BW CT5 ran with the onstar fuse pulled. These are observations and inferences:
GPS no longer works
Microphone no longer works
Therefore it seems the lazy GM electrical engineers rely on the onstar module for GPS and some communication rather than developing their own circuitry for these functions.

As mentioned in another post, apple car play works for navigation. This is better than the built in navigation as google maps and apple maps update regularly.

Voice commands for outgoing telephone calls do not work. When making calls, one uses the cell phone microphone.

There may be other features that do not work but they are not obvious.

It is possible that no software updates take place without onstar module working.

This is great info, I would love to try it. (Losing softwre updates is not a concern to me. I am happy with the way my car works now, I don't really care to have mysterious changes over the air being applied at GM's whim. I'll just run on whatever software version it currently has. I am typing this to you on a Windows 7 PC, O never plan to upgrade, that's the kind of guy I am.)

Anyways... can you just advise which one is the onstar fuse? Then that sucker is GONE

(And to all the geniuses saying BuT yOuR pHoNe TrAcKs YoU ToO.... I do hope you are aware, that your phone has an OFF button? Which you could use if you don't want your phone to know that you're doing a lil' street racing, or going to / doing all manner of other things I won't dare to speculate on, but that you might not like to be discoverable by law enforcement or google?)

 

[jrhammer]

This is great info, I would love to try it. (Losing softwre updates is not a concern to me. I am happy with the way my car works now, I don't really care to have mysterious changes over the air being applied at GM's whim. I'll just run on whatever software version it currently has. I am typing this to you on a Windows 7 PC, O never plan to upgrade, that's the kind of guy I am.)

Anyways... can you just advise which one is the onstar fuse? Then that sucker is GONE

(And to all the geniuses saying BuT yOuR pHoNe TrAcKs YoU ToO.... I do hope you are aware, that your phone has an OFF button? Which you could use if you don't want your phone to know that you're doing a lil' street racing, or going to / doing all manner of other things I won't dare to speculate on, but that you might not like to be discoverable by law enforcement or google?)

On a 2023 BW CT5, the trunk fusebox #45 is onstar. If you have a different year or model, the fusebox layout is easy to find online. One might be concerned about updates because some may patch security holes.

 

[revvhigh]

On a 2023 BW CT5, the trunk fusebox #45 is onstar. If you have a different year or model, the fusebox layout is easy to find online. One might be concerned about updates because some may patch security holes.

Cool. Thanks for the info

 

[rdollie]

For the last few weeks, the BW CT5 ran with the onstar fuse pulled. These are observations and inferences:
GPS no longer works
Microphone no longer works
Therefore it seems the lazy GM electrical engineers rely on the onstar module for GPS and some communication rather than developing their own circuitry for these functions.

As mentioned in another post, apple car play works for navigation. This is better than the built in navigation as google maps and apple maps update regularly.

Voice commands for outgoing telephone calls do not work. When making calls, one uses the cell phone microphone.

There may be other features that do not work but they are not obvious.

It is possible that no software updates take place without onstar module working.

Lazy GM engineers rely on Onstar...what are you talking about? OnStar is a GM service and they've baked that hardware into every car they've made for like what, 15 years?? Literally millions of new cars per year for over a decade?? That's billions if not trillion+ miles of connected experience backed by the physical infrastructure, contact centers/command center, partner agreements, etc and you think they're supposed to use yet a separate setup for GPS??? Standardizing that infrastructure and spreading its cost across millions of units of production is simply smart business.

For those of you paranoid about GM knowing where you are...just who are you? They have 10s of millions of vehicles and no reason to track you individually. I can understand wanting to protect your identity from eDiscovery from any private or government institution but if that's the case, why advocate for a tech giant like Apple or Google to have your in-car data?? Not to mention all the non-travel apps on your phone that gave access to your GPS, microphone, and or camera.

For me personally, I prefer being able to track my car, remote start, etc and a few years back while out of town and I had to rush a family member to a hospital - speaking to a nurse via OnStar was invaluable. It's all personal choice of course but I'll happily keep the OnStar system in the background.

 

[A Blackwing]

(And to all the geniuses saying BuT yOuR pHoNe TrAcKs YoU ToO.... I do hope you are aware, that your phone has an OFF button?

You can pull the battery out of your phone and it will still be able to track you. Come on man at least commit

 

[rubberduck]

You can pull the battery out of your phone and it will still be able to track you. Come on man at least commit

Use a burner and get a fresh one every few days.

 

[A Blackwing]

Use a burner and get a fresh one every few days.

Exactly, then come on a public forum and talk about it.

 

[poor-sha]

Don’t forget to keep some cash and a passport with an alternate identity in a safe deposit box.

 

[Larry2013ct5]

I actually agree with you 100%. For GM cars equipped with Super Cruise, for example, GM absolutely uses and tracks your eye movements and will record and use that against the owner, if there's ever a lawsuit.

I had a Spark EV, once upon a time, and it was creepy as hell to get emails telling me how many times I hard accelerated/braked, which I did quite often in that car - 325ftlb torque out of a front wheel drive was quite entertaining.

I don't know about GMs, but other OEMs do provide the option to opt-out of various data tracking tools, which may be used for harmless reasons or your data may be sold - who knows. But be warned that they tell you that your user experience may be affected. This is big issue for cars that get OTA software updates (think Teslas).

And yes, I use the privacy settings on my phone and for each app, and I don't accept all cookies from websites. I care about my privacy and will take steps to protect it. Not doing a perfect job, but I'm not ignoring the problem either.

Just bought a 2023 CT5, gps and OnStar are not working, checked fuse and wire connections in the trunk all looks good, any idea where I should look next?

 

[FLYARMY]

I disconnected the telemetrics box in the trunk. Within 2 hours, 2 "Men in Black" types pulled up in a plain GM vehicle with no badges and questioned me on why I unplugged it. They said that every car basically has an ankle monitor in it. This is used by extra terrestrial aliens to keep an eye on us and report our doings to the Shadow Government. They made me plug it back in and then held a funny looking penlight up to face. I don't remember what happened next, but I did later notice that my underwear was on backwards and my butt was itchy. I then got a email saying that I am a preferred customer and if I renew my Sirius XM I can get a one year discount !

 

[RDATLTE]

I disconnected the telemetrics box in the trunk. Within 2 hours, 2 "Men in Black" types pulled up in a plain GM vehicle with no badges and questioned me on why I unplugged it. They said that every car basically has an ankle monitor in it. This is used by extra terrestrial aliens to keep an eye on us and report our doings to the Shadow Government. They made me plug it back in and then held a funny looking penlight up to face. I don't remember what happened next, but I did later notice that my underwear was on backwards and my butt was itchy. I then got a email saying that I am a preferred customer and if I renew my Sirius XM I can get a one year discount !

The ol’ anal probe!

 

[Larry2013ct5]

Thanks for all the help.

 

[FLYARMY]

I will say that back in 80's , GM had started putting black boxes in cars. There was a rich kid driving his new Corvette and he crashed into a family in a minivan. The family unfortunately died. Little rich kid had all kinds of lawyers , paid for by Daddy who bought him the car. The detective working the fatal accident had just read about the black boxes. He went to the impound yard and had it pulled out and sent for examination. It showed that the kid was doing 110 mph and only hit the brakes a quarter second before impact. This information destroyed his lying ass at trial. A few years later there was a similar fatal accident and the courts had ruled that you now needed a search warrant to pull the black box. Today, these cars are recording everything that you are doing and not doing.

 

[Markmcg]

I don't care about Onstar, and I don't want GM sending me emails based on my vehicles mileage or other reports. It's creepy. GM/Onstar has no business knowing where my car is or what I'm doing.

That being said... is there a fuse I can pull, or antenna I can disconnect, or anything else that's an easy job in order to disable however my car is communicating with General Motors?

I spoke with OnStar today after reading about the Class Action lawsuit filed this week by a Cadillac driver in Florida. OnStar says you need to subscribe to their Smart driver service. That’s the one that tracks your data and is used by Lexus/Nexus. Lexus/Nexus sells that (your) data to various insurance companies. I have never subscribed to that service but others unknowingly may have. I am going to cancel OnStar period; once I receive a letter from the company confirming I have never subscribed to the Smart Driver service and request the removal of any and all data collected during the time I was a customer. Failing to receive a written confirmation that data has been deleted I will join the class action lawsuit.

 

[Markmcg]

You can opt in or out of privacy settings with OnStar and the Smart Driver program. As far as I know, GM isn't providing your data to police or insurance w/o your permission.

I spoke with OnStar today after reading about the Class Action lawsuit filed this week by a Cadillac driver in Florida. OnStar says you need to subscribe to their Smart driver service. That’s the one that tracks your data and is used by Lexus/Nexus. Lexus/Nexus sells that (your) data to various insurance companies. I have never subscribed to that service but others unknowingly may have. I am going to cancel OnStar period; once I receive a letter from the company confirming I have never subscribed to the Smart Driver service and request the removal of any and all data collected during the time I was a customer. Failing to receive a written confirmation that data has been deleted I will join the class action lawsuit.

 

[coffee_time]

I spoke with OnStar today after reading about the Class Action lawsuit filed this week by a Cadillac driver in Florida. OnStar says you need to subscribe to their Smart driver service. That’s the one that tracks your data and is used by Lexus/Nexus. Lexus/Nexus sells that (your) data to various insurance companies. I have never subscribed to that service but others unknowingly may have. I am going to cancel OnStar period; once I receive a letter from the company confirming I have never subscribed to the Smart Driver service and request the removal of any and all data collected during the time I was a customer. Failing to receive a written confirmation that data has been deleted I will join the class action lawsuit.

What they didn’t tell you is when you sign up for onstar you are enrolled. No one here selected a smart driver subscription.

 

[cab777]

I'm far from a conspiracy theorist, but the NYT piece below lays out more details about the data GM is reportedly sharing with Lexis/Nexis. This is also being discussed more directly in this thread: Cadillac Smart Driver and Privacy Concerns

I'm generally in line with the comments above because I don't care who's tracking me, etc, but if GM is sharing driving behavior data with insurance companies via Lexis/Nexis and that leads to increased premiums, I'm pissed and a class action suit is absolutely called for.

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly.

www.nytimes.com