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by dangus 950 days ago
I was always under that assumption, how else is it supposed to work without storing things? Why would it delete your phone book and message log every time you disconnect? The way you delete it on basically every infotainment system ever is by removing the device from the pairing menu.

Basically, the lawsuit found that this is exactly the same concept as syncing your phone's messages to your laptop or a personal device like that, all on local storage. The fact that the car doesn't protect the data isn't all that alarming: plenty of people have unprotected data sitting on their laptops and flash drives. Again, this isn't cloud storage or Internet-connected services here, this is old world Bluetooth phone calls and texts infotainment.

> The class-action complaint contended that "text message and call log data copied onto the vehicle can be, and is, transmitted to users of Berla's equipment without requiring any kind of password, biometric, or other security measure." The complaint pointed to a 2017 CyberScoop report that quoted Berla CEO and founder Ben LeMere as saying his firm was working with carmakers to educate them on securing private data, but only "when it's part of an agreement that they will allow law enforcement in."

> A Ford court filing said that making a vehicle containing an infotainment system does not create liability under the state law "any more than selling computers and smartphones to purchasers who make and record calls and store texts on their devices. Any recording in this case was done by Plaintiffs, or by the system itself, which resides in a vehicle they own or use."

1 comments

> how else is it supposed to work without storing things?

Ask the phone for you contacts list when you need to view contacts? Ask the phone for text data when you need to view texts? Why wouldn't it work like that?

When I make a phone call, does it record both parties' voices and store them on the car's hard drive, or does it just stream the voice data through the car to and from the phone? It's the latter. So it's reasonable that someone might expect the other functions to work that way.