Shutting down the Bluelink cellular modem progress

Hi Everyone,

I just got a new Santa Cruz, but didn't realize that Hyundai thought that it was a good idea to sell all of my driving habits, locations and any other data that they can scrape the GPS and modem to the insurance companies. I'm a big privacy advocate and as such I've been working hard on shutting down the Bluelink cellular modem. I didn't get the app because when you check the required "I Agree" box to their privacy policy, (read it) you're actually agreeing for Hyundai to send your name and personal info along with all of the other driving, location data that they're selling to the insurance companies. I bought the car and paid for the modem so I have the legal right to have it shut down!

So for the last month I've been calling Bluelink and emailing Hyundai USA telling them that "I do NOT agree with there privacy policy" and that therefore they are required by law to stop collecting data and that I wanted the cellular modem shut down. They replied that they would shut it down and gave me a date in the middle of last month. Well, they claim to have shut down all Bluelink modules, but they still haven't shut off the modem. Apparently they don't understand why it's not shut down and no one seems to know who shuts them off. Funny! I been promised at least 8 times that someone would contact me directly to solve this "problem" and so far over the last 5 weeks no one has. I've been given a case number and a national agent and her personal #. Ha! That number is a dead end number where the agent is busy, but you can leave a message. This is actually implemented by Hyundai USA to frustrate their customers enough for them to loose interest in pursuing whatever issue that they are having (Real Nice Hyundai!). Most people would give up, but it's just pissing me off more and making me even more determined to bring this to light in as many places as I can.

So I'm escalating this and trying to get the legal services of the Electronic Frontier Foundation behind me and I'm emailing Congressmen and Representatives to consider passing a bill to have a single clearing house with 1 phone number that any car owner can call to shut down any brand cars modem with a single call. This shouldn't be that hard and it is our legal right with our vehicles. I'll update as this progresses.

All of you people that don't care about your privacy... yes, I know Google, Apple and everyone else is gathering data. This is not about them. This is about a company stalling to give me what is legally mine to request.

 

WOW, OK, I was wrong about the phone number that I was given, apparently it's a general mailbox and the agent that you leave a message for may not get that message for up to 3 days. Anyhow, I got a call from Hyundai Korea and talked to a very nice woman that explained that Hyundai actually had nothing to do with the modem and that they really didn't know how to shut it down because it was controlled by a third party company (an insurance telematics clearinghouse). She is going to contact the clearinghouse and find out how it can be turn off. She has given me her personal email address and phone number and she said that she would have a solution for me this Coming Tuesday late in the day. We'll see...