[bscphil]

> if you finance most vehicles they will install a poorly hidden cell tracker that usually draws power from the OBD2 port.

I have never heard of this. Do you have any reference to learn more?

Who exactly does this installing - someone hired by the bank? The dealer? If I pay cash for a vehicle, does that guarantee that the dealer won't install a tracker? How can I find this out?

[judge2020]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/business/dealbook/gps-dev...

If you pay cash, you probably can't be 100% sure there isn't one, but it would still be illegal for them to do this. Otherwise, when you loan/lease the car, it's legal for the dealer to put a tracker on 'their own car'/do it as required by the bank ('their own car' or a car they have a 100% value lien on, for those of you in lien states).

Via the article, the FTC was supposedly probing these to determine 'if the availability of car loans outweighed the privacy issues', but nothing came of it (which is why i'm not hopeful for https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32426633 ).

[metric10]

We leased a new Jeep Cherokee from a Miami dealership some time ago. It was a company car and was financed. Some months later we noticed the odometer was blinking constantly so we took it in for service to a different dealer. The tech pulled it out and told us about it. He said they didn't do it at that dealership, but some do it.

It was just hanging off the OBD2 port, so if you're concerned about it when leasing or buying a new car then just make sure to check that port.

I still have it in a box somewhere. I'm not sure if there's anything interesting that can be done with it...

[edit: minor grammar]

[neuralRiot]

Usually it is installed by some “tech” at the dealer, installing on the OBD port is unusual as it is where people will look first, it can be installed anywhre there’s constant 12v power, newer trackers are very small (the size of a gum pack) and have their own battery. Tracking after the payment is done is not usual as the dealer has to pay a fee for the network but the tracker stays there and i guess it can be re-activated.