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...

 

Tuesday came and went with no update from Hyundai so I contacted her via email on Thursday 9/14 asking about the resolution that she was expecting. Her email reply said that she was now exploring ways to turn off the telematic radio from Hyundai’s end, via their software. From this I inferred that she had called the Bluelink telematics provider and tried to get them to turn off my radio and they refused as it would set a precedence allowing anybody to turn off their telematic radio. That evening I got a final email from Julia that said that Hyundai had no way of turning off the radio from their end and so I needed to contact Bluelink again to try to get a resolution from them! Bluelink has no government mandate nor legal leg to stand on keeping anyone connected. So now I'm going to pursue other avenues to get telematic radio turned off.

Read what Mozilla.org thinks about car telematics, look up the week old report -
It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy

 

Okay, sorry that it's taken so long for the update on this post.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reached out to me and said that at this time they're too busy working on other privacy issues and are not interested in covering this, even though, if you read Mozilla.org's review on car privacy you know that this is one of the biggest privacy issues of the day.

But, my contact with Congressman Gregory Murphy of NC has been great! His office, on their own accord contacted Hyundai asking why I could not turn off my modem. I was emailed today Congressman Gregory Murphy's office that Hyundai said that they would look into it and today when driving I noticed a large red circle with a slash through it over the Bluelink symbol in the top right corner of the screen! I'm assuming that this is the precursor to finally being turned off!

I also replied to to the congressman's email today asking if nothing more can be done so that everyone doesn't either need to contact their congressman or file a lawsuit to accomplish turning off their modem. The fact that Verisk, the company behind Bluelink, having no legal claim to your modem, is using deceit and deception by telling customers that they don't know how to turn off your modem is unacceptable! I'm trying hard to force a system into place to make this easy, but for now, you have to go through the motions that I went through, calling Bluelink and telling them that you don't agree with their privacy policy and that you want the modem shut down. Then Once they lie to you saying that they don't know how, you can move on to Hyundai and after that finally contact your districts government official. But you have to have gone through the effort with Bluelink and Hyundai first. I'll update when the modem is finally turned off and as I hear more from Congressman Gregory Murphy's office.

 

Okay, I guess the modem is actually off, I didn't think so because when looking at the modem under settings it still shows a signal strength of RSSI -97. I would prefer a 0, but from everything that I read, the red circle with the backslash means it's off.

Minutes ago, in another email back to Congressman Gregory Murphy's office I thanked him profusely. I also asked if he couldn't ask Hyundai why it took a congressman to do in 1 day what I am legally allowed to do, but couldn't get done in over 2 months! And couldn't they do something about that... more will follow...

 

OK, This will be the last post from me on this thread. So the problem isn't totally solved for everyone else, but it worked for me. So, to turn off your Bluelink cellular modem contact both Bluelink and Hyundai and tell them that you don't agree with their privacy policy and that you want all data collection turned off, but also, you especially want the Bluelink cellular telematic modem turned off. You might add that if they don't take care of this for you quickly that you'll contact you congressman and ask him not only to help you to get your modem turned off, but you'll suggest to him or her that automobile telematic cellular modems should be an opt-in feature when you buy a car because getting it turned off is so hard. It's your right to do so, you own the telematic modem, but both car companies and telematic companies lie to you not wanting to do it. Hyundai told me specifically that the Bluelink modem is not nessesary for the car to function properly and that any future updates can be installed at the dealership.

When contacting your congressman they'll think that they have to involve some governmental department like the NTSA. Let them know that they don't because automotive telematic Cellular radios are unregulated and that because you own yours you have a legal right to have it turned off and the telematic companies and car companies have no legal rights on private cars. Explain that the companies, both telematics and automotive won't respond to owners request, but that they will respond to a letter of inquiry from a political representative because their scared that politicians my put a bill in place making telematics an Opt-In feature to protect the consumers privacy. You can also reference the Mozilla.org investigation called
It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy.

My guess is that if even 4 people take the time to do this with each of their congressman, they will pass a bill to Opt-In on car telematics because they don't want to spend their days sending hundreds of email inquiries to all the car companies for their constituents...

Enjoy,

Frank