VW wouldn’t help locate car with abducted child because GPS subscription expired
arstechnica.com
VW says its Car-Net service shouldn't have demanded $150 payment from detective.
  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
    692·
    11 months ago

    mmmm taste that free market. im sure that consumer will use their money to buy elsewhere, thereby telling volkswagon exactly how that behavior will be tolerated!

    • xor@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      32·
      11 months ago

      yep. the invisible hand of the market will surely correct for this and everything will become just and good… as long as pesky regulations don’t stick their noses in it…

    • set_secret@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      11 months ago

      No doubt exactly how Volkswagen went under when people stopped buying them because they maliciously tampered with emissions computers, literally poisoning people around their cars to make them look more efficient. Justice will no doubt be swift for these large organisations.

  • sub_ubi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    313·
    11 months ago

    I see. A cop can call up VW and get your car’s location whenever they want, even if you’ve cancelled any sort of tracking service.

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      78·
      11 months ago

      If the owner of the car is consenting to have it tracked, I don’t see the problem here. Why do you make it sound like the police overreached?

      • ArbiterXero@lemmy.worldEnglish
        141·
        11 months ago

        I seriously doubt vw cares if the owner consents.

        In this case, they absolutely did, and it didn’t matter . I would bet that the reverse is true and that if they absolutely don’t consent, it still doesn’t matter.

        • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          26·
          11 months ago

          I guess I’d like to believe car telemetry is governed like any other resource police have access to. Investigators can ask email services for logs, phone providers for location data, banks for transaction records, but would all require a warrant.

          Owner consent changes the discussion significantly, especially with something this time sensitive. If my kid is kidnapped I absolutely want them to get access as quickly as possible, not waste time waiting on a judge. That should include cooperation and reactivating an expired subscription as part of supporting the investigation.

          • ArbiterXero@lemmy.worldEnglish
            81·
            11 months ago

            I take it you haven’t seen the latest articles on police access to prescriptions……

            It all depends on the company deciding that they value your privacy over government money.

          • aelwero@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            You’re assuming you still own your personal information… You should, but in reality you don’t (stated in this specific context, but I do mean it in a broader sense as well. Much broader than should be) .

            They don’t need a warrant if the company consents… Its your personal information, but the company owns it. They can and do sell it, and the decision on wether to give it to law enforcement is on them.

  • Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    11 months ago

    There used to a joke that those OnStar systems would call the cops on you for DUI and every day that is closer to being reality. I don’t condone drinking and driving but the government invasion of privacy is pretty scary too.

      • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zipEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        True but also entirely irrelevant, this isn’t some unusually nefarious plot or racist agenda at work.

        Just plain old capitalism, blind greed over everything. This could have been literally any manufacturer and it would have been neither a surprise nor made a difference

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    41·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    According to a Chicago Sun-Times article, “the Car-Net trial period had ended, and a representative wanted $150 to restart the service and locate the SUV.”

    The detective pleaded, explaining the “extremely exigent circumstance,” but the representative didn’t budge, saying it was company policy, sheriff’s office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said Friday.

    "Volkswagen has a procedure in place with a third-party provider for Car-Net Support Services involving emergency requests from law enforcement.

    A man wearing a mask got out of the BMW “and struggled to get into the victim’s Volkswagen, as she tried to keep her 2-year-old son safe,” the sheriff’s office said.

    The perpetrators fled, and the person who called 911 “rescued the child from the parking lot” before the boy could wander onto the busy roadway.

    When contacted by Ars today, Covelli said the sheriff’s office is still searching for the BMW and believes the car is still in the area.

    The original article contains 750 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!