Legality of removing sim cards from cars in Australia (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

When you do finally drive, you'll find that having a GPS and such is awesome.

If you're paranoid to that extent, you're better off getting an old car honestly. But trust me, nobody cares about tracking your car, and there are so many licence plate readers here in Australia you're not really anonymous anyway

[-] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago

I think OP is referring to the whole "connected cars" thing, which isn't the same as GPS. Many cars nowadays have mobile data capabilities on and are, unbeknownst to the owner, sending all sorts of information to the car makers.

This isn't just governments and government contractors collecting data for road use and tolling. It's for-profit companies harvesting consumer data for their own purpose. OP is right to be paranoid.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago

I know how helpful GPS is. Also, I am not paranoid, and you shouldn't be making those kinds of assumptions about anyone you don't know. I simply want to minimize private data being open for abuse and am exploring what can and can't be done, and their benefits and disadvantages. This after all, is the privacy community you're talking in; where you share advice and knowledge about enhancing ones privacy, not telling them they are paranoid for pursuing it.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

Cellular service has nothing to do with gps capabilities.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

true, but totally irrelevant. Gps has nothing to do with sim cards

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

This is just the usual "nothing to hide" handwaving argument.

This data is not used by some theoretical policeman to laugh at how bad you drive, it is part of commercial datamining present in virtually all devices and services you use.

GPS and such? Great that I have a smartphone that I trust more, and have more control over, than this big blackbox with no access whatsoever.

this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024

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