is data sent from the car stored/ tracked by Ford?

[kacalapy]

I am learning about my ford mobile and how it knows details about trips taken in the car and where you went.

 

 

Also about all the issues about it not knowing when its home and following the desired behavior with regards to charging and the like.

 

 

I don’t like internet/ phone companies tracking my usage details and hate that it seems now the fusion energi will too.

 

 

Does anyone know if this is the case and how this works?

 

 

Does ford keep a database of our details?

 

[jeff_h]

Here is the information from the owner's manual:

 

DATA RECORDING

Service Data Recording
Service data recorders in your vehicle are capable of collecting and storing
diagnostic information about your vehicle. This potentially includes information about the performance or status of various systems and modules in the vehicle, such as engine, throttle, steering or brakesystems. In order to properly diagnose and service your vehicle, Ford Motor Company, Ford of Canada, and service and repair facilities may access or share among them vehicle diagnostic information received through a direct connection to your vehicle when diagnosing or servicing your vehicle.

Additionally, when your vehicle is in for service or repair, Ford Motor Company, Ford of Canada, and service and repair facilities may access or share among them data for vehicle improvement purposes. For U.S. only (if equipped), if you choose to use the SYNC Vehicle Health Report, you consent that certain diagnostic information may also be accessed electronically by Ford Motor Company and Ford authorized service facilities, and that the diagnostic information may be used for any purpose. See SYNC™ (page 310).

Event Data Recording

This vehicle is equipped with an event data recorder. The main purpose of an event data recorder is to record, in certain crash or near crash-like situations, such as an airbag deployment or hitting a road obstacle; this data will assist in understanding how a vehicle’s systems performed. The event data recorder is designed to record data related to vehicle dynamics and safety systems for a short period of time, typically 30 seconds or less.

The event data recorder in this vehicle is designed to record such data as:

• How various systems in your vehicle were operating;
• Whether or not the driver and passenger safety belts were buckled/fastened;
• How far (if at all) the driver was depressing the accelerator and/or the brake pedal;
• How fast the vehicle was travelling;
• Where the driver was positioning the steering wheel.

This data can help provide a better understanding of the circumstances in which crashes and injuries occur.

Note: Event data recorder data is recorded by your vehicle only if a non-trivial crash situation occurs; no data is recorded by the event data recorder under normal driving conditions and no personal data or information (e.g., name, gender, age, and crash location) is recorded (see limitations regarding 911 Assist and Traffic, directions and Information privacy below). However, parties, such as law enforcement, could combine the event data recorder data with the type of personally identifying data routinely acquired during a crash investigation.

To read data recorded by an event data recorder, special equipment is required, and access to the vehicle or the event data recorder is needed. In addition to the vehicle manufacturer, other parties, such as law enforcement, that have such special equipment, can read the information if they have access to the vehicle or the event data recorder.  Ford Motor Company and Ford of Canada do not access event data recorder information without obtaining consent, unless pursuant to court order or where required by law enforcement, other government authorities or other third parties acting with lawful authority. Other parties may seek to access the information independently of Ford Motor Company and Ford of Canada.

Note: Including to the extent that any law pertaining to Event Data Recorders applies to SYNC or its features, please note the following: Once 911 Assist (if equipped) is enabled (set ON), 911 Assist may, through any paired and connected cell phone, disclose to emergency services that the vehicle has been in a crash involving the deployment of an airbag or, in certain vehicles, the activation of the fuel pump shut-off.

Certain versions or updates to 911 Assist may also be capable of being used to electronically or verbally provide to 911 operators the vehicle location (such as latitude and longitude), and/or other details about the vehicle or  crash or personal information about the occupants to assist 911 operators to provide the most appropriate emergency services. If you do not want to disclose this information, do not activate the 911 Assist feature. See SYNC™ (page 310).

Additionally, when you connect to Traffic, Directions and Information (if equipped, U.S. only), the service uses GPS technology and advanced vehicle sensors to collect the vehicle’s current location, travel direction, and speed (“vehicle travel  nformation”), only to help provide you with the directions, traffic reports, or business  searches that you request. If you do not want Ford or its vendors to receive this information, do not activate the service. Ford Motor Company and the vendors it uses to provide you with this information do not store your vehicle travel information. For more information, see Traffic, Directions and Information, Terms and  Conditions. See SYNC™ (page 310).

[murphy]

There is a data radio in the car that operates on the cellular network.  It reports the detalis of every trip.  That's how MFM reports the details and the current location of the car.

[kacalapy]

Murphy – that’s what I am worried about, the cellular transmission of car data, speed, distance, gps location… all goes to Ford servers that then post it in a pretty UI of a web page or mobile device. Regardless Ford has records of all this… and there is no way to opt out of this tracking.

 

Jeff H – if I understood the details of what ford has in the disclaimer then to prevent data capture and tracking I am not allowed to enable/ use SYNC at all.

 

 

Both instances are just plain wrong.

What a world we live in devoid of freedom of choice.

[murphy]

SYNC does not use the built-in data radio.

It uses your cell phone that you link to the car via bluetooth.

 

Only MFM uses the data radio.

 

You could try removing the fuse for the data radio (F10) but that would also shut down the keyless entry keypad and the rear gate trunk module.  It would probably create an error condition.

[kacalapy]

not having a ford yet, what is MFM and what does it do?

 

 

are my worries off base?

 

in short i dont want someone to see/know my location, speed, distance traveled.

 

also security worries me... in case of a hacker gettign in (wallmart and others) i dont want people to know when im not home, how far i am, or when im headed back.... or where home is even !

[dnorris78]

You have a choice ... and the choice is ... don't purchase and drive the car ...

 

I am a big proponent of liberty and choice too ... I chose to purchase the car knowing well in advance it's capabilities of tracking and recording data.

[murphy]

MFM is MyFordMobile.

 

Go here

 

https://phev.myfordmobile.com/content/mfm/en_us/site/login.html

 

and log in as a guest to see what it can do.

[kacalapy]

Indeed cool!

 

I'm looking to get a pre-owned car. Does that mean when I set up my view I'll see the previous info of how the car was driven?

[murphy]

Indeed cool!

 

I'm looking to get a pre-owned car. Does that mean when I set up my view I'll see the previous info of how the car was driven?

I don't know but my guess would be no since you will have a different user ID and password.  On a pre-owned car make sure that you get two keys with the car.

[jeff_h]

Jeff H – if I understood the details of what ford has in the disclaimer then to prevent data capture and tracking I am not allowed to enable/ use SYNC at all.

 

If you're that concerned with others knowing where you go, a cell phone is a much better indicator of that -- do you have one?

[meyersnole]

If you are concerned about privacy I am afraid that you are living in the wrong times. Right or not, more and more information is being collected and analyzed than ever before and it will lead to a road system that you will not recognize 10 to 15 years down the line (if that long). Just do a search on future of traffic intersections and you will hit on something like this....

 

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679397/the-traffic-intersection-of-the-future-will-have-no-stop-lights

 

And as Jeff mentions, if you don't want to be tracked you need to ditch the cell phone and stop driving on most public roads, and stay out of populated areas. Just look around for an hour... look for cameras, you will be amazed by how many you will find. They don't usually put wires in the roads anymore at traffic lights, as its easier for a computer to interpret a camera mounted on the post. New toll roads do not make you slow down or stop at a booth -- simply snap a picture of your tag and you and send you a bill. Speeding tickets and red light cameras catch violations. Walk into any public area and you are most likely being recorded. Every email sent is scanned and stored, even these forum posts are recorded with information that can be tracked back to the user / location / machine of origin.

 

One thing we have going in our favor is the vast quantity information out there. Unless someone is looking for you, then you are just a needle floating in a very large haystack. 

[Energitic]

GIven all the massive data breaches and privacy violations these days, I think the question posed in this thread is a valid one. Here's a bit more information with regard to the privacy of location information collected via Ford's connected car services. A few months ago, Senator Franken sent a letter to Ford asking to clarify the handling of location information (prompted by a remark made by a Ford executive, who said at a conference "We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing").   You can find the letter here:

 

http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2662

 

And Ford's response:

 

http://www.franken.senate.gov/files/letter/140212FordResponse.pdf

 

In a nutshell: location data collected by MFM is stored for 90 days by Ford, and is shared with the service provider who runs MFM services for Ford (a company called Acquity Group, which is owned by consultancy company Accenture). Ford may also share the information with law enforcement agencies pursuant to a court order.

 

However, no location data leaves the car if you don't explicitly enable MFM. So, if you don't want your data to be collected, don't enable MFM or deactivate it via factory reset. And BTW, the latter is also highly recommended if you buy a used Ford, to make sure that the previous owner cannot track your information via a previously linked MFM account. You can then reactivate MFM and link the car with your own account.

[Bills_Fusion_Energi]

GIven all the massive data breaches and privacy violations these days, I think the question posed in this thread is a valid one. Here's a bit more information with regard to the privacy of location information collected via Ford's connected car services. A few months ago, Senator Franken sent a letter to Ford asking to clarify the handling of location information (prompted by a remark made by a Ford executive, who said at a conference "We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing").   You can find the letter here:

 

http://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2662

 

And Ford's response:

 

http://www.franken.senate.gov/files/letter/140212FordResponse.pdf

 

In a nutshell: location data collected by MFM is stored for 90 days by Ford, and is shared with the service provider who runs MFM services for Ford (a company called Acquity Group, which is owned by consultancy company Accenture). Ford may also share the information with law enforcement agencies pursuant to a court order.

 

However, no location data leaves the car if you don't explicitly enable MFM. So, if you don't want your data to be collected, don't enable MFM or deactivate it via factory reset. And BTW, the latter is also highly recommended if you buy a used Ford, to make sure that the previous owner cannot track your information via a previously linked MFM account. You can then reactivate MFM and link the car with your own account.

 

If the Vehicle/driver subscribes to the SYNCMYRIDE feature/website GPS data is exchanged with that site ALSO when using such features as TRAFFIC DATA on your selected route even if a MYFORDMOBILE is NOT used. It is unclear if this data is saved any length of time or if it is just used at that moment.

 

The Navigation feature on the car seems to be using the GPS to determine its location but that information, if it is used, would seem to be internal to the vehicle.

[Energitic]

Ford's response has information about how SYNC uses location data. However, it is different from MFM in that location information will only be shared via your Bluetoot-connected phone when you request a specific service requiring the locaiton (e.g. spoken turn-by-turn directions via SYNC), whereas MFM periodically transmits your location in the background via the inbuilt cellular radio.

[tseibel76]

If you think they are keeping our data confidential, you're a fool.  No different than any other company/service today.  Hell, our own government is at fault.  Until we all wake up and realize that, it will be more of the same.  If we want to change it, let's do something.  I'm in.

[JeffPrice]

My Fusion Energi quit reporting to MFM several months ago.  I tried to get it working again to no avail.  After thinking about the tracking I have decided to leave it broken.

[mmmhmmmm]

The vehicle's ATT cell modem is under the rear deck. Feel free to disconnect it. The tiny wrench light on the display might light up.

[vett93]

The vehicle's ATT cell modem is under the rear deck. Feel free to disconnect it. The tiny wrench light on the display might light up.

 

Please post a picture.