4G Modem Disabling Instructions:

[gnarlycaveman]

its a feature for head on accidents of other reasons you would not be able to use a phone, the car calls out in case of an accident assumming you have been injured or knocked out or say your phone i s not ith you or was thrown from car and so on....

being logical in a forum i see. lol.

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[Briebee72]

being logical in a forum i see. lol.

LOL IM not trying to slam anyone we all have our own reasons and paranoias but this whole thread of disabling the one thing that could save your life cause your afraid of data... when your phone is the biggest data collector of all. And that facebook app people use says plainly righty in the user agreement that it has the mic live listening to you . reads your e-mails, reads texts and listens to your phone calls. but will people take that off their phones for privacy? LOL NO. Its just my opinion, disabling a safety feature cause you want to speed and think your car insurance is watching is well.... up there with chem trails and bigfoot.

 

[nathanks]

A question though. Has anyone actually gotten an insurance rate increase due to tracking their car? I'm not sure how this could happen unless Jake is at the track with you.

I'd say, yeah everyone is in this boat now. The insurance companies didn't come out with these stupid "Safe driving" apps to offer discounts, they did it to collect data on how people drive. They are using that data to base insurance rates on. I'd go one step further to speculate the "real" insurance rate is what you get after you sign up with the app and the data collection begins. The rate if you opt-out is a penalty for not participating.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Also correct that the car would not be able to dial 911.

Are you sure? S550s would call 911 using the driver's Bluetooth connected phone before a modem came with the car.

Manufacturers tend to avoid risks even long shots if they can. Putting an extra bit of their parts between an unconscious driver and help for them while removing existing software to call using a driver's phone exposes Ford. I would expect that Ford would still retain the software to use the driver's phone even if they added additional hardware to make the 911 calls. That way Ford is increasing rather than decreasing the odds of getting help (since the car undoubtedly has antennas with better range than what's inside a phone inside a car). If so, disabling the car's cell wouldn't prevent 911 calls via a driver's phone.

 

[Bikeman315]

Not wanting to start a big arguement, I have a cell phone that I can dial 911. I dont need the car to call them.

You’re making the assumption that you are conscious. It’s bad to make assumptions.

 

[Briebee72]

Are you sure? S550s would call 911 using the driver's Bluetooth connected phone before a modem came with the car.

Manufacturers tend to avoid risks even long shots if they can. Putting an extra bit of their parts between an unconscious driver and help for them while removing existing software to call using a driver's phone exposes Ford. I would expect that Ford would still retain the software to use the driver's phone even if they added additional hardware to make the 911 calls. That way Ford is increasing rather than decreasing the odds of getting help (since the car undoubtedly has antennas with better range than what's inside a phone inside a car). If so, disabling the car's cell wouldn't prevent 911 calls via a driver's phone.

On star does exactly this and no phone is needed. Not sure on Fords.

 

[Bikeman315]

Are you sure? S550s would call 911 using the driver's Bluetooth connected phone before a modem came with the car.

Manufacturers tend to avoid risks even long shots if they can. Putting an extra bit of their parts between an unconscious driver and help for them while removing existing software to call using a driver's phone exposes Ford. I would expect that Ford would still retain the software to use the driver's phone even if they added additional hardware to make the 911 calls. That way Ford is increasing rather than decreasing the odds of getting help (since the car undoubtedly has antennas with better range than what's inside a phone inside a car). If so, disabling the car's cell wouldn't prevent 911 calls via a driver's phone.

Well, of course you are right, as usual.

https://owner.ford.com/support/how-tos/sync/sync/settings/how-to-use-911-assist-with-sync.html

 

[Briebee72]

Well, of course you are right, as usual.

https://owner.ford.com/support/how-tos/sync/sync/settings/how-to-use-911-assist-with-sync.html

so it does use your phones but it relays crash data and location so they can find you before opening the mic to talk to the operator if you are able too. so phoen side of the equation out of the picture why would you still run the risk of lossing any part of this service by pulling fuses cause your afraid of data sharing? if i hit a tree and an knocked out i owuld want my car to call and give location so i can be saved. not dieing on side of road and saying well at least they couldn't track me.

 

[drummerboy]

if i hit a tree and an knocked out i owuld want my car to call and give location so i can be saved. not dieing on side of road and saying well at least they couldn't track me.

It's a very good point, isn't it. And an extremely compelling case for not pulling the fuse. After all, if there were no data/privacy concerns, no one would be here discussing how to disable the modem to get rid of the 911 assist feature.

The world finally agrees there are massive data/privacy concerns with facebook/google, et al., but perhaps you forgot that prior to this very recent perception shift, the general population liked to lump those concerns up there with chem trails and bigfoot as you put it. So I think when you bring this up you just make the case for pulling the fuse stronger: in 10 years, do the headlines perhaps read: 1.5m Users Hit By New Ford Privacy Breach As Extent Of Data Misuse Exposed or GM scandal 'hit 87 million users'? Who knows, this is pure speculation, but big companies and big tech have done nothing to earn our trust, so to state this is nothing but conspiracy theorist paranoia is asinine.

 

[dpAtlanta]

Fortunately, the Event Data Recorder (EDR) aka "Black Box" does NOT, and can NOT transmit data. Except for VW and Bentley, the EDR does not even know what date or time it is.
Additionally, it does NOT store any data unless the system wakes up due to an airbag deployment, or a near deployment event. Slamming on your brakes will not wake up the system, unless you hit a big enough speed bump during the braking.
One less tin foil hat to wear.

 

[Briebee72]

It's a very good point, isn't it. And an extremely compelling case for not pulling the fuse. After all, if there were no data/privacy concerns, no one would be here discussing how to disable the modem to get rid of the 911 assist feature.

The world finally agrees there are massive data/privacy concerns with facebook/google, et al., but perhaps you forgot that prior to this very recent perception shift, the general population liked to lump those concerns up there with chem trails and bigfoot as you put it. So I think when you bring this up you just make the case for pulling the fuse stronger: in 10 years, do the headlines perhaps read: 1.5m Users Hit By New Ford Privacy Breach As Extent Of Data Misuse Exposed or GM scandal 'hit 87 million users'? Who knows, this is pure speculation, but big companies and big tech have done nothing to earn our trust, so to state this is nothing but conspiracy theorist paranoia is asinine.

Oh no looks like someone believes in big foot and i hit a nerve LOL Kidding.

But in all seriousness. Until people get rid of the cell phone glued to their hip then data tracking and collecting is never gonna end. Every app on your phone tracks you and what you do, alexa and ok google have active live 24/7 microphones listening to you, Facebook basically ..you give it permission to take any data it wants form your phone even your live calls. every web page you go to tracks where you came from . How long you stayed and what you looked at. Google maps who ownes waze. tracks everything you do period. GPS , speed, location, cords, how long you stayed there, distance between places everything. The post office sells your info to services like apartments dot com and realtors so they can track empty relalstate. The dmv sells your info to the auto parts stores. Dont believe me go into any auto parts store give them your tag and no other info and they can pull up everything about you and your car. I had a playstation account 9 years ago and they still have the info from it on file and I haven't used it in 7 years. Those roomba vacuums collect room size data and gps and its collected by that company. ever use a VR headset? they use the front cameras to recognize items in the room for sales data. have the insurance company you have on your cars app on your phone? well they have access to gps and speed data that way also. the list goes on and on and on... the only asinine thing is to think pulling a fuse is doing anything to stop data collection. until you are willing to get rid of that phone you are screwed. There are 40 ways to get the same data from your phone that they get from the car so disabling it at the potential risk of disabling something important is rather stupid and accomplishing nothing.

Plus not all data collection is a bad thing. They could be gathering it to improve the handling of the car and corning in the future. Of which they would have no other means to collect this data. Not all information gathering is for nefarious reasons. so yes that is where comparisons to big foot come in. Plus all cars now have a "black box" recorder in them you cant disable (although it works differently as another poster pointed out but the datas there if they want it) so if something serious happens they have the data they need and want anyway and there is nothing you can do about. So pulling fuses does nothing.

Plus if you are worried about privacy well you are totally screwed cause every business on this planet knows that every human has a tracing device on them they can access. Like i said until you are wiling to get rid of that phone there really is not alot you can do to stop it. ever notice the little things hanging form the ceiling in stores they track your phones around the store. almost every big store uses them they know your phone its id number and tracks it and you each separately. we installed the walmart app last week. guess what... all our purchases form the last 2 years magically showed up in it. Thats because Walmart already had our cell phones identification from its in store beacons. They can track you all the way to the register and tie it in with purchase time. The ways they collect info will melt your mind but one thing is true its all tied to your phone so again until your willing to ditch that.... pulling a fuse that could disable a important system is just pointless and does nothing to stop anything.

Read ...https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html and thats just one way. Everything you do in this word is tracked and logged. Just get use to it. or else you turn into a guy whos is running around with rf meters trying to find the tracking devices and .... oh wait.

 

[drummerboy]

Look, we get it, we understand that you and plenty of others aren't interested, or see it as kooky, or too much of a battle, or any other reason why one wouldn't want to stop the modem. And I can never remember which of your points above have already been hashed out in this thread or the one going in the GT500 forum, but we've already been over each of the above points.

...there are also ways to decrease data collection in other areas as well. I agree with you that it is a battle. I might even agree with you that that battle is lost. Where I disagree is on what can be done about it. For instance, how very easy it is to pull this fuse and stop this particular data collection scheme. One down.

Apparently everyone here agrees that there are massive, egregious privacy concerns when it comes to corporate data collection, and here we are with an easy way to stop one. It is not futile. The reality is that many little chips away here and there help. Some require tech savvy, some require constant vigilance. Everyone has their own tolerance level, know how, etc., and sure the average person may not have much they can do. Pulling the fuse is something anyone can do in a few minutes with little to no drawback to the user. I can't think of any other area where the same can be said.

To keep it brief, I'll just say that I'm sure you can agree that there are many people who don't subscribe to the "just get used to it" mentality. To those that are still here following along, there is another thread on this topic going in the GT500 subforum here that is full of fantastic discussion not covered in this thread.

 

[Briebee72]

Look, we get it, we understand that you and plenty of others aren't interested, or see it as kooky, or too much of a battle, or any other reason why one wouldn't want to stop the modem. And I can never remember which of your points above have already been hashed out in this thread or the one going in the GT500 forum, but we've already been over each of the above points.

I sorry IM not trying to put you down, I just hate to see people drive themselves nuts over trivial things you cant really do anything about. IM not trying to say you or anyone is a kook. But man you will actually drive yourself nuts trying to stop the unstoppable. Why waste the valuable time doing so. My only point to this post is you are not sure what it fully does and no one else seems to know either and telling people to unplug things that could be potentially linked to safety systems is highly irresponsible. And to be honest this thread should be taken down. It could get someone hurt considering you have no idea what else that fuse controls or what systems the modem it intertwined with.

 

[drummerboy]

Better get all the pre-2019 GT350's off the road folks, they've been deemed too unsafe since they lack a modem.

I could have sworn I previously connected my GT350 to my Wi-Fi, but yesterday I could not find the settings in the infotainment screen. Maybe I did that on a different car? Do our cars have the ability to connect to the Wi-Fi or not?

I figured I'd go ahead and turn my Wi-Fi on and test for you guys if the car is able to send its data this way, but I just couldn't find the setting!

EDIT:

The car can in fact scan for and connect to Wi-Fi networks even when the modem fuse is pulled.

 

[Bikeman315]

Mine doesn't have this option. Presumably because it has a modem, it does not need a Wi-Fi adapter.

Of course you do. Go into settings, swipe left once and you will see the wifi icon.

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