Disconnecting 2021 OnStar

[CTown Duramax]

Has anyone with a 2021 Tahoe or Yukon disconnected On Star? No one should ever submit to this level of data collection, black box, GPS and voice. Aggregating it will tell you things you don't even know about yourself.

I understand that one can call on star and they will shut off the service. But that's not enough.

I see this video about unplugging the coaxial cables. It says the only side effects are losing the compass and the speed zone warnings.

I don't think the video shows a 2021 or 2022 Hoe. I like the compass but don't care about it that much.

 

[ltrain4]

I never considered this. I’m a bit of a privacy nut and you’ve given me something to really consider.

Im picking up my 22 next week and I’ll be curious if anyone can share how doing this went.

 

[THarber]

Just pull the fuse.

TH

 

[Bill 1960]

I can tell you from my experience with a 2020 a few things.

Firstly, if you tell Onstar to disconnect you, all they’ll quit doing is sending you the reports. They WILL NOT disconnect your vehicle from their telemetry services and stop recording your data.

Secondly, it’s not as simple as a fuse. It’s integrated into the car network and infotainment and it’s not a single component you can unpower without affecting other systems.

There are some how to vids on older models but I haven’t seen one for vehicles this new. Cutting the antenna coax and intentionally shorting it at the transceiver would likely do it.

 

[CTown Duramax]

Hi Bill 1960. The video I linked shows unplugging the cable. Yes, what you said. It's not simple. And we have industrial computer tech knowledge in this family. The code can't be rewritten and altering the circuits is going to have consequences. I am just wondering what the consequences are. I have never worked on/messed an electrical system.

P

 

[CTown Duramax]

Just pull the fuse.

TH

Yes, that would be good. But what I am reading about this is that the system operates outside the fused circuits.

 

[CTown Duramax]

I never considered this. I’m a bit of a privacy nut and you’ve given me something to really consider.

Im picking up my 22 next week and I’ll be curious if anyone can share how doing this went.

Yes, this is a serious invasion of privacy. It records your voice. It keeps all your locations. It monitors all your driving, brakes, gas, speed, etc. Imagine someone following you everywhere making a recording of everything you do and say.

But the worst part is it supports accurate predictive modeling. Data aggregation and analysis is so good now that it can predict whether you're going to turn left or right before you've even decided which way to go.

 

[Doubeleive]

in the past other people have had a need to disconnect onstar because they worked in a sensitive environment, generally the permanent fix is to unplug the module
so that being said the 2021 should have a module behind the infotainment screen/area, simply disconnecting the gps antenna may not fully disable it because since about 2016 they also use 4g and it is not entirely dependent upon satellite alone.
doing this on a 2021 may or may not give a annoying error message on the dic/screen
be aware also that as of 2022 GM's global B system is a fully integrated network with wireless which is there new system, I suspect that information mining will be unavoidable and you will have to "agree to there terms" which is likely buried in the fine print in the sales doc's.

 

[waynehead99]

This is just a piece of the puzzle. If you don't want data collected on you, don't own a cellphone... and make sure you disconnect the cellphone that is built into the truck.

There are much bigger ways that these companies collect the data on you, and Onstar is a small piece to a much bigger pie.

I hate the data collection too on our lives and do my best to minimize it, but the only way to get around it is to stay off the internet completely, don't interact with companies that utilize the internet (like banks and grocery stores)... and not buy an vehicle that is newer than 2000.

 

[Doubeleive]

This is just a piece of the puzzle. If you don't want data collected on you, don't own a cellphone... and make sure you disconnect the cellphone that is built into the truck.

There are much bigger ways that these companies collect the data on you, and Onstar is a small piece to a much bigger pie.

I hate the data collection too on our lives and do my best to minimize it, but the only way to get around it is to stay off the internet completely, don't interact with companies that utilize the internet (like banks and grocery stores)... and not buy an vehicle that is newer than 2000.

true google and apple will follow you in your vehicle anyway.......as well as the many app's installed
just as well I can say to my wife "we need a new water heater" and walla a couple days later here are ad's for water heaters

 

[CTown Duramax]

This is just a piece of the puzzle. If you don't want data collected on you, don't own a cellphone... and make sure you disconnect the cellphone that is built into the truck.

There are much bigger ways that these companies collect the data on you, and Onstar is a small piece to a much bigger pie.

I hate the data collection too on our lives and do my best to minimize it, but the only way to get around it is to stay off the internet completely, don't interact with companies that utilize the internet (like banks and grocery stores)... and not buy an vehicle that is newer than 2000.

Resisting further spread of a ChiCom style surveillance state (invented by our friends in Silicon Valley) in the USA takes some effort. Try using a simple GPRS phone, a VPN and browsing privacy tools. Maybe it works some in reducing one's data profile and the volume of data points. Giving your GPS locations/movements, contacts, voice information and hooking it to data from web browsing, makes the individual big data profile much more capable. You may remember the Target baby diaper coupon algorithm over a decade ago that let Target know a woman was pregnant before she did, and that was just web browsing profile.

I certainly don't want this going on in my car. F that.

 

[CTown Duramax]

Doesn't it already have a teenage driver monitoring function that can limit speed or even access? GM going in for ChiCom-style surveillance. "Your vehicle has been disabled. OnStar data show anti-social tendencies." Got to get this thing out of my nice new truck.

 

[Doubeleive]

Doesn't it already have a teenage driver monitoring function that can limit speed or even access? GM going in for ChiCom-style surveillance. "Your vehicle has been disabled. OnStar data show anti-social tendencies." Got to get this thing out of my nice new truck.

oh, that's all coming, it will end police chases as we know it the cops will be able to just press a button and your engine goes into low power mode and shuts off, doors unlock-done.
when you get tagged for a ticket the same sort of thing will happen "you are required to stop" or some such message will pop up on the screen
think not? think again......just a matter of time for the technology to come online
police around here are already running 360deg license plate scanners, drones, deployable gps taggers (they shoot it and it sticks to your vehicle, then they back off and wait for you to stop somewhere), probably a few other gadgets. I have my police scanner on 24/7 I hear all this stuff being used. the license plate scanner drives my radar crazy because it's a laser scanner.

 

[CTown Duramax]

Exactly. Self driving cars, autonomous vehicles. The people who make this tech are responsible, but they are on board with the CCP surveillance state. Silicon valley made that massive human rights abuse. Surveillance and censorship (including self imposed censorship on web forums) are everywhere. I am going to get this on star out of my car because I do not want to submit to this. I left it in my last car, but the idea of my voice being gobbled up by Alexa makes me sick. My wife is a senior techie engineer and she is even more adamant about getting this out of our car than I am.

I'm interested, wondering that the GPS taggers may not be legal. I had not heard about those before. Do you know anything else about them? Usually, a GPS requires a tracking warrant, but I guess if it's being used to avoid a chase then there's already reason to stop so they may be allowed in some enforcement situations.

 

[Doubeleive]

Exactly. Self driving cars, autonomous vehicles. The people who make this tech are responsible, but they are on board with the CCP surveillance state. Silicon valley made that massive human rights abuse. Surveillance and censorship (including self imposed censorship on web forums) are everywhere. I am going to get this on star out of my car because I do not want to submit to this. I left it in my last car, but the idea of my voice being gobbled up by Alexa makes me sick. My wife is a senior techie engineer and she is even more adamant about getting this out of our car than I am.

I'm interested, wondering that the GPS taggers may not be legal. I had not heard about those before. Do you know anything else about them? Usually, a GPS requires a tracking warrant, but I guess if it's being used to avoid a chase then there's already reason to stop so they may be allowed in some enforcement situations.

the technology is not new it has been around for a while, it's use is something new (here anyway) and yes I am sure it's not something they can use at will for any given situation, the last time i heard them using it on the scanner the subjects were known to be armed and had already committed *** crime and were being chased and were not stopping so I believe they gave the go ahead to tag them (for officer safety) and then made a plan to take them down with force once they had stopped, which they did.
We have had some really bad things happen here like nationwide news type stuff with police chases, a while back a gang robbed a bank, took a couple of the employees hostage in there car and they had a wild west shoot out all over town, like crazy stuff the police ended up shooting them all dead including the hostages. there were bullet holes all over town.

 

[CTown Duramax]

Oh, using a GPS tagger in fleeing felon situation, probably no issues with that. It sounds like the officers can keep a safe distance but not lose contact and avoid a shoot out like you describe.

I seem to recall cars getting hacked and shut down. Wasn't there something about that?

What you described, being put by remote into limp home mode, doors unlocked is already in the car. It's here.

 

[SSGUNNER]

Yes, this is a serious invasion of privacy. It records your voice. It keeps all your locations. It monitors all your driving, brakes, gas, speed, etc. Imagine someone following you everywhere making a recording of everything you do and say.

But the worst part is it supports accurate predictive modeling. Data aggregation and analysis is so good now that it can predict whether you're going to turn left or right before you've even decided which way to go.

OnStar is not the only one to do it. Google has been doing it for sometime. Ever wonder how they send you a yearly summary of your frequent visited places including everywhere you’ve gone?

Who’s to say your phones are not doing that to you…talk about something, get ad about that something…

 

[Stbentoak]

Also when you are using your navigation and you see the red and yellow lines denoting slowing traffic, where do you think that data comes from? 100% your cell phone data, Speed, time, and distance….

 

[Bill 1960]

I disable location services on my phone unless I have a specific need to navigate and I turn it off again. I’m under no illusions that prevents all locating functions but at least it cripples some.

I also run an app on my Apple gear called Lockdown. It’s a privacy tool that creates a local VPN on the phone or ipad and filters out all the traffic going to Google, FB, and a multitude of information purveyors who follow you around on the web tracking everything you do. Again, I’m sure it’s not perfect but it’s something. On an average week, it blocks FIVE THOUSAND tracking requests on my iPad alone.

These tech companies are out of control and need to be reined in.

 

[BG1988]

Has anyone with a 2021 Tahoe or Yukon disconnected On Star? No one should ever submit to this level of data collection, black box, GPS and voice. Aggregating it will tell you things you don't even know about yourself.

I understand that one can call on star and they will shut off the service. But that's not enough.

I see this video about unplugging the coaxial cables. It says the only side effects are losing the compass and the speed zone warnings.

I don't think the video shows a 2021 or 2022 Hoe. I like the compass but don't care about it that much.

it's forced mandated even if you don't or never agreed to the TOS..... if you do disable it do get a dash camera.... EDR are useful in accidents and tickets..... the best bet would be to terminate the RF signal.. using a RF cap or resistor based this will tell the SUV it's "offline" or out of service area... this ould also apply to the onstar



this will leave the Blackbox EDR working (disabling completely opens the owner to potential liability issues, unless u have other means of an EDR...)

this is an example