They discovered a thing that everyone’s known forever. Here’s Bruce Schneier in 2008
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/04/tracking_vehicl.html
Yep. I remember watching a documentary on how to disappear. Car tires and windshields were both covered, because they can contain traceable technology. This was a decade ago, at least.
Windshields!? That’s a new one
I think it had something to do with the embedded antennas, but I could be mistaken.
Yeah, I dont have any, nice try
Any car or any tire?
Unfortunately, I do. And they lock you in to licensed vendors just for your seasonal tyre change.
Looks like my next car is going to be an antique.
Wonder what kind of car you have, because my last 2 cars had a procedure to train/program a new TPMS, and some cars (according to Google) will automatically learn new sensors after about 20 minutes of driving.
Mitsubishi ASX.
Brutal. I guess you can always swap the tires yourself and then stop by a tire shop and ask them to reprogram it. I feel for you.
Eh, the fucking cellular modems in my car that stream the camera data for training can be used to track me. Hell, the anti theft tracker that I paid money for can be used to track me.
They can, but both of those are often encrypted such that it is at least hard. TPMS isn’t encrypted so it is easy to figure out what cars are going by.
Encryption wouldn’t solve anything anyway. The problem is not the content of the messages, that’s just tire pressure, which changes constantly, and wouldn’t be useful. The problem is the unique identifier that’s being broadcast constantly. Theoretically its a very simple fix: Just implement a sort of rolling code that periodically modifies the identifier.
I’m tired, boss.
Exhausted.
Me too.
Hey, that’s my line.
My truck hasn’t been able to communicate with my tire pressure sensors for years, I’m not worried about mine.
Your car insurance might be interested to know this fact.
Fucking narc
This was a tip to OP, in case he wasn’t aware. Insurances will use any pretext to weasel out of their contractual obligations.
What you think they’re gonna do a surprise inspection of his car and catch it or something?
They would be. That’s why you don’t tell them. If you’re treating your insurance company as your friend not an adversary, you probably don’t understand how their profits grow year over year.
among the hundreds of other things that “could be tracking me”
at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if my inner most thoughts weren’t already uploaded to some giant government server.
Bro, ongoing government surveillance. No one should be surprised by that now. The mask is off.
James Brown, in his later years, believed he was being surveilled by electronic devices in his teeth. When we read “that’s a thing” next year and no one acts surprised you can forgive him his PCP usage.
Jokes on them, those tire pressure sensors are the first thing I don’t replace. I just visually check my tires and put a pressure gauge on them if they look suspect.
Or just replace your tyres with ones with non sensor.
That said it is a little annoying. My dash is forever telling me it can’t talk to the tyres.
As someone who has gotten a flat and not noticed until the tire was destroyed multiple times, I love TPMS systems. They save me money in the long run as the tire can be patched instead of replaced.
How can you not feel it driving? That is kind of scary that you are that absent minded while driving.
Rear tire of a FWD vehicle both times and a small leak while driving on dead straight roads. I was surprised it took me so long to notice as well, but I guess when you’re driving straight and it’s the rear of a FWD vehicle, it’s difficult to notice.
Oh wow, even more reasons to hold onto my old but not enshITtified baby!
Wait till you see how many Bluetooth devices still do this. Or better yet, Ant+.
All these “unintentional” tracking devices begin to look intentional.
Build a large enough catalogue of bulk data and anything can be used to track you.
We bought “It’s just so we can catch the terrorists!” hook, line, and sinker post-9/11.
But when “terrorism” is redefined as “making people in power upset,” we’re in big trouble.
So don’t say anything rude about Donald Trump or the FBI will seek you out:
I never bought it, I was raising immortal hell then. But as a collective, yes we did, and as a collective, we’re sitting around moaning instead of doing something, anything, effective.
True, but your implication that I’m not doing enough while I’m sitting here complaining is just as well-served to the mirror.
Lol
License Plates, Vin Numbers clearly available on the dash, Tire Sensors, Bluetooth MAC, WIFI MAC, Cellular IDs for most even if you don’t pay for the service.
It’s an interesting thing to point out, but we’re mostly driving around with much higher power sensors than the pressure sensors.
So far I have had success in getting my new car unable to blast out all sorts of uniquely identifiable RF except for this TPMS thing. Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this one? Is there maybe a specific brand of sensors that doesn’t send out beacons like this once already paired?
Not to mention the cell phone most of us carry.
Jokes on them. My TPMS sensors died a while ago, and I haven’t felt the need to fix it.
Now I’m a ghost! /s
The rfid tag is probably still good and whatever is on the receiving end isn’t working.
It seems that the system is not RFID or passive, but an active system that requires a battery to transmit data. It’s far more likely that the batteries, which typically lasts about the length of time I’ve owned my car, are just drained.
Your car has a series of numbers and letters on the back of it that are unique to the vehicle, and can be used to track you as well. There are even automated cameras that can do this.
Tracking a vehicle is easy, and always has been.
However, the researchers found that these tire sensors also send a unique ID number in clear, unencrypted wireless signals, meaning that anyone nearby with a simple radio receiver can capture the signal, and recognize the same car again later
Its not quite the same ball game. Sure its not great that the government can track easily with ALPRs, but this type of tracking if available to nearly anyone and could be used for significant crimes like stalking or human trafficking. It can also be done without a sightline of the car, unlike a camera system.
Yeah, it should be fixed, but still… Of all possible evil ways to track, this is one of the lesser ones.
O no. And this whole time I’ve been mailing my phone to my destination every time I have to drive somewhere so they can’t track me!
The bastards!
Ha, they’ll have to install working sensors on mine first 😈
