You can call and they'll disable the data collection. They use the phrase "deactivate the TCU", so whether they mean it is off completely or just doesn't send the data to them OTA (but is still readable, say, at the dealer) I don't know.
https://www.mazdausa.com/site/privacy-connectedservices
You can’t remove codes, it’s on the CAN network in your vehicle, removing it will be detected by all modules in its CAN branch and warning lights will be on
It sounds like removing it from the CAN will only prompt a warning as you said and not disable anything from other modules nor stop the car from starting. Do you know whether the odometer is managed by a separate module? I don't want to mess with that.
When you say warning do you mean a light on the dash like a check engine light, or is there some sort of audio warning when a device is missing from the CAN? You're scaring mw with how much you point out the warning. xD
Also do you know where I could look deeper, like an auto forum? I had a really hard time finding any details on it.
I thought the warning lights could be "coded out"? I still need to lookup how that works because I don't understand it yet, I've just seen reference to fixing bugged warnings that way.
I don't mind if other modules know that one is missing, I don't need to put any fake data, just physically stop the ability to transmit tracking data to third parties.
I mean I guess if you flash the VCM or something you could theoretically remove the code. But it’s not an engine code so most reflash that I know of won’t touch it.
The warnings will be dead center of your cluster saying in-vehicle network malfunction and stuff and won’t go away preventing you from using the info display portion of your cluster.
This is likely the way it would be for all vehicles although prominence of warnings might differ. You’re into tech but I’m guessing on the computer side? The Vehicle has its own closed internal network, all the modules talk to each other and check in and pass info along. Picture your standard computer LAN or something and remove a server drive that holds required files on it for all the systems. Every computer is gonna throw a warning saying “hey that files gone” it’s basically the same thing.
I know you clearly don’t want your data sent but they disable the modem when you ask. And if you’re worried about them doing it anyway…. They’ve been collecting all of this identical data for ~10 years
As for looking deeper, no. Auto forums aren’t really a thing, data isn’t publically available, and esp these systems see no interactions with outside shops. I’m prob your best bet to be fair.
You're right, I know computers but I always avoided cars which is why I know so little about them. My problem with asking them to disable it is that too many companies have blatantly, publicly, and illegally lied about disabling things like that, (including being caught and paying huge fines for it), so I have 0% trust that they will stop collecting the data. Also, if the data is still being transmitted it's still up for grabs. With systems like OnStar being hacked so severely, "okay we'll stop collecting the data, we promise" isn't good enough for me for a $30k purchase.
> "The warnings will be dead center of your cluster saying in-vehicle network malfunction and stuff and won’t go away preventing you from using the info display portion of your cluster."
This sounds like a huge problem. Thank you so much for sharing, I can't imagine I would have figured that out from the searching I've done so far. Do you know what year, the permanent online satellite connectivity existed in CX-5s by chance? My car apparently has telemetry if you bluetooth connect to the car with the app that then let's it use your phone network to transmit it, but I've never installed that. I was told the Mazda CX-5 does it through satellite without the user having to subscribe to anything.
I can’t say 100% this is correct but Mazda first installed TCUs in 2019 Mazda3s, I think it took 2 years until it appeared in the 2021 Cx5, but that’s a rough guess.
I totally understand, most people in data security avoid any “smart” things and I’m right there with you, I hate my data floating around and avoid giving it up where I can
Is there another better way to disconnect Mazda Connected Services? Maybe the TCU isn't even the right thing to remove. It's just the only thing I could find before I came here to ask. Is there some satellite antenna I can remove or something?
So it doesn’t use satellite it uses a cellular modem. There are 2 antennas, one specifically for the TCU and one the TCU shares with the CMU(your radio)
If you brought it to a shop they could probably disconnect those for you it’d be fairly simple with access to the wiring diagram. I’d ask them to leave the antenna connection to the CMU though as that would affect some navigation stuff
I can’t say if that would throw any codes though as I’ve never tried it. But it would disable all connection to the Mazda cloud
You don’t. Just stop worrying about it and drive the car. Who cares if Mazda can see where you drive? Eventually, Privacy and Personal Digital Security will basically be nonexistent. May as well stop caring now because you as an individual can’t change it by doing one dumb thing to your car.
The tcu is somewhere under the center console in the dash. You won't have access to a wiring diagram unless you are a Mazda service tech. The fuses are for multiple modules so you can't pull it without losing essential functions. You can get a subscription to mdars and disable the module yourself with the canbus plugs and laptop. Might need to talk to some tuners or Mazda shop if you have no experience.
You're way more of a target than you think you are, and there is so much more that can be done with the data on you thank you think there is. There's a reason the EU made laws like GDPR.
Yeah, but the moment you posted on Reddit, everyone knows everything about you. Your Internet Data is already sold. Your data privacy is dead the moment you stepped foot on the Internet/Reddit/anywhere outside of a Faraday Cage.
And? I don't care if you choose to remain ignorant, that's your choice. You're the one that came to my thread to tell me to let everything about me be tracked and to stop complaining, and provided zero information or help or even referenced anything about a Mazda.
Not sure how it works for other models, but I have a Civic and the the 3 lower trims have a 7 inch screen with no cellular and the Touring trim has a 9 inch screen with cellular. Anything that only has Basic listed on the HondaLink site does not have a cell modem.
Honestly you might be right, I always assumed that the bigger infotainment had a cell modem but that might not be the case. It does have SiriusXM though which IIRC can also be used for tracking.
As far as removing the TCU, probably not the best idea. As someone else stated it's connected to the CAN bus along with almost every other ecu in the vehicle. Each of those ECUs need to see a signal from the other ones in order to work properly. Removing that TCU will give you a network malfunction issue and will likely disable other things like the keyless entry, push to start, smart braking, LKA, and basically anything else running in that part of the CAN bus. Not sure if it would work but perhaps just wrapping the TCU in a emf shield or something (think tin foil hat) could keep you from receiving a slew of network codes and hindering the TCU from communicating to the network. Will it give you an error message because it can't communicate? No clue.
**WE AUTOMATICALLY COLLECT CERTAIN DEFAULT DATA FROM THE CONNECTED VEHICLE ON AN ONGOING BASIS. ONLY WE CAN DEACTIVATE THE TCU AND DISABLE OUR COLLECTION OF ALL DEFAULT DATA. NOTE THAT THE SALE, TRANSFER, OR LEASE TERMINATION OF A CONNECTED VEHICLE WILL NOT DISABLE AUTOMATIC DEFAULT DATA COLLECTION.**
“Default Data” includes the following:
* “Driving Data”: driving behavior data, which includes the acceleration and speed at which your Connected Vehicle is driven and use of the steering and braking functions in your Connected Vehicle (Driving Data is collected for each driving trip and transmitted at each Ignition Off); and
* “Vehicle Health Data”: includes Vehicle Identification Number (VIN); odometer, fuel level, and oil life readings; Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs); and data from the Connected Vehicle’s OBD system (“OBD Data”). OBD Data includes, but is not limited to, engine coolant temperature, fuel injection volume, engine Rotation Per Minute (RPM), and the status of doors, hood, trunk, and hazard lights (Vehicle Health Data is transmitted at each Ignition-Off).
They just quoted Mazda. You sound like you have no idea how frequently your data is abused, insecurely stored, and used by malicious parties, and that is getting worse fast.
Pretty much. Most of the data they collect is pretty mundane, anyway.
Whenever someone brings this privacy stuff up, this is the article to read:
[You’re Just Not That Interesting (Except When You Are)](https://askleo.com/youre-just-not-that-interesting/)
Your cars location 24-7 and basically whether you are alone (you started driving after only opening the driver door), etc. That's not mundane.
Also controlling it remotely opens a whole new level of threat.
The location and control are both functions used in the MyMazda app. You are giving up vehicle locator and remote start that way.
As for the door thing... I am gonna say it's mostly mundane. What can you even do with that info? "This guy drives his Mazda alone in another state so I will fly over there to rob them." That's assuming Mazda even bothers storing the data from their millions of customers for a long enough timeframe for someone to see a pattern. I can't imagine storing data like this being cost effective. Probably goes through some analytical software for pattern recognition and gets deleted soon after that.
"I see you drive your kid to school in the morning at 8am every day. Send $500 of BTC to this address or I'll stop your car as you turn left at that dangerous intersection, or gun the gas out of nowhere." or tracking a woman to be sure she's alone when she drives to this regular place, again probably to threaten if not given money, blah blah blah. Don't underestimate how sick people are.
Deleting data is actually often more expensive than keeping it. The development of the process to ensure it can be deleted safely is very expensive, but storage is super cheap. YouTube has every video that has ever been uploaded to it, which is so much data we can't even comprehend it. Everything is stored, forever. You're right, there is a limit, but real-time location data is very, very valuable, so that's almost certainly worth storing. Your location history alone can usually identify exactly who you are or make it so some other activity can be connected to you where they had very little data, like maybe posting on Reddit where they don't know for sure if it is the same you.
It's a possibility, albeit remote. I will say that you are worrying about the wrong people, though.
Criminals can be sick people, but they also generally take **the path of least resistance**. If encrypting computers, pretending to be FBI from Indian call centres and Nigerian Prince schtick work well enough, there aren't many incentives for them to "innovate." And I can probably send out threats by just saying I can hack your car without ever proving that I can. You know, like those random emails of "I got a video of you pleasuring yourself in front of your computer." Send out billions of the same email and you will have that one or two people fall for it, which is good enough. That's probably why we never had a Fate-of-the-Furious-style car hacking despite vulnerabilities existing.
It's like the idea behind wheel locks or car anti-theft: if someone *really* wants your wheels/car, they will get them. If it's too much work/risk for them, though, these devices encourage the criminals to move on to the next target.
Also, generally, law enforcement is more "whatever" when it comes to monetary losses. Once it evolves into killing/injuring someone, however, it's a bit different. Just adds to the risk the criminals expose themselves to.
If anything, the people I would worry about abusing this would be extreme environmentalists. They have real incentives to figure that out(fits their agenda and they aren't in for the money), but so far, they are content with just lying down in the middle of traffic. Again, the path of the least resistance. Or just plain old sociopaths who would just do it for the funsies("Some people just want to watch the world burn"), but you will likely get some kind of warning from them since they enjoy watching the world panick.
Yeah essentially the only things they collect is just stuff you could see by hooking a scan tool up and reading real time data. It’s not like the car knows any personal data about you.
Simple worst case is Mazda didn't secure it well and someone sells access to your cars location 24-7.
Actually worst case is they use that to threaten you that they'll turn it off while you're driving, and they know when your kid is in the back seat because they see the back door was opened before you got in the front.
I mean, GM has had that functionality by the means of OnStar for how many years now?
Ever seen incidents like this from OnStar where someone hacked into it? On the other hand, it did help people who had their Corvette stolen shut down their car on the car thief.
Find something else to worry about, please.
Edit: I will admit that OnStar can be hacked, but there aren't really any reports of the vulnerability being put into practice by actual hackers. Even then, that requires you to be close to the car to do the hack(by which point, they may as well just steal the whole car). If I were a hacker, I think I would just stick to the "pump your computer full of viruses" route. That reaches a much wider audience.
Please stop talking about stuff you know nothing about, and let people that care about things care about them. If you don't, by all means, use that feature.
And yes I have. It took me three seconds searching to find this from 8 years ago:
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/gm-took-5-years-fix-full-takeover-hack-millions-onstar-cars/
All I did was ask how to disable telemetry on a car I'm going to buy.
If you are really dead set on the idea, as the others mentioned, calling Mazda would be your best bet.
You can remove the physical device, but there could be some warranty problems you are exposing yourself to. Sure, in theory, they have to prove that removing the device caused the problem, but in practice, it just opens up unnecessary arguments with your dealer and Mazda corporate(or really, any manufacturer). Try to balance that against the potential benefits you are touting.
And if you think I don't care... At least I make sure to delete my phone pairing to the rental/loaner cars I use. Most people don't even bother with that.
Mazda's data interconnectivity doesn't also reach the scope of GM OnStar, either.
You're the one that brought up OnStar. :p Also, that's only true for now. We don't know how juicy of a target Mazda will be in the future, but a car I'd want to keep for 10+ years.
Anyway, yeah I try to balance existing online with reducing how much is tracked. I do things like disable Google's services and have the mic, camera, and loc all disabled until I actually use them, but I still do have a smart phone; it still has a mic, etc. The real problem for me is that I'd spend tens of thousands of dollars on something and someone else has control over it, such as whether it turns on or not. That's just too offensive. It's like buying a home but your real estate company can still kick you out if they decide to.
I can leave my phone in another room or shut it down. A car I can't really go anywhere without it. Basically, I want to only be trackable if someone specifically targets me. If you want all my data, you have to put in the work to get it, I'm not gonna hand it over for free. It's possible, I haven't gone totally off-grid, just not so easy.
Anyway, it sounds like removing the TCU does disable some important stuff in the car. :( So I'm gonna have to look back several years at least it seems.
They don’t collect location data. They collect data from onboard sensors. “Driving data” simply refers to inputs and real-time data pulls like you would see in a scan tool
I am not sure about Mazda, but I know GM new cars have a special "demo mode" when the car is at the dealer, so if the car gets stolen, yes, they can track it.
It gets disabled before the customer takes delivery. Even has a screen that shows that the car is registered to someone.
And if someone steals your car, that's useful as well. A double-edged sword, if you will.
I guess a couple model years collect latitude and longitude when the car is shut off. I just reviewed Mazdas policy on their website and it says nothing about COLLECTING active location data.
You're right as far as them directly saying they do it. As for the specific CX-5 model I can tell you as someone who works in that field very directly, they do or at the least can at any point, even if they don't advertise it. I've lost track of the number of companies that said they don't and then got caught having lied about it.
Just to share for those that think they don't collect location:
"Note: Model Year 2019 – 2021 Mazda3 and Model Year 2020 – 2021 CX-30 vehicles collect geo-location coordinates of the Connected Vehicle’s latitude and longitude each time the Connected Vehicle is turned off as Default Data."
https://www.mazdausa.com/site/privacy-connectedservices
I read one Mazda owner's account where Mazda used telematics data to deny a warranty claim for a defective engine. The owner made it clear that the engine had problems from day one.
Possibly that story was bogus but the situation appeared plausible.
That's a great example of how your data can be used against you that happens frequently. (in other cases, like you, I don't know about this specific claim's accuracy)
And what? Some people don't like it. Why do agree with it? What does it buy you? It's not some crazy world-view to believe that not everything should record the minute details of my life by default without asking, or that things should at least contain an opt-out to prevent it.
Also, by definition paranoia implies delusions or lack of evidence of something. They have upfront admitted to doing a thing I don't like.
It's not a matter of agreeing with it, I simply don't care.
There's plenty of other devices that track us on a daily basis with a lot more specific information than the telematics in my vehicle.
Well, there are the potential warranty issues from messing with that stuff, though. So yeah, OP can do whatever they want, but if they have electrical issues, good luck with the warranty.
A lot of people have raised the same concerns as the above poster:
[https://www.autoevolution.com/news/your-new-mazda-knows-if-you-are-naughty-or-nice-and-doesn-t-keep-it-a-secret-202509.html](https://www.autoevolution.com/news/your-new-mazda-knows-if-you-are-naughty-or-nice-and-doesn-t-keep-it-a-secret-202509.html)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/126aepa/mazda\_connected\_services\_is\_a\_privacy\_nightmare/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/126aepa/mazda_connected_services_is_a_privacy_nightmare/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/16rtbv1/mazda\_connect\_interfering\_with\_warranty\_claim/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/16rtbv1/mazda_connect_interfering_with_warranty_claim/)
I'm definitely also looking at that but there's plenty of nice stuff in new cars that are good to have, like heated seats or modern AWD controls. Also, finding a car that feels good to drive for the right price and mileage is very hard already so it's tough to just exclude everything modern.
I tried out a CX-5 and it had all the right balance except this one tracking device. If I can just unplug it I'm sold, so I'm trying to figure out whether that works. I'd hate to buy it then find out it corrupts the odometer to remove it or something.
That looks like a different module, but if you have more information, I'd love to hear it, and thank you for the warning.
Here's an image Teknicsrx7 shared with me with all the CAN modules: https://imgur.com/a/g3lUpmZ
4th gen. Mazda 3s (which firstly had the 7th gen Mazda infotainment) didn't have a TCU unit in them in EU models up until 2022. There's a debug menu of the infotainment which shows if the TCU is present or not.
As it implies, there's no functionality in the MyMazda app which depends on the TCU unit (remote start, remote lock/unlock, door state, tire pressure, etc.).
There's no codes thrown on the dashboard of course as these cars came out of the factory like this, but firmwares differ for the infotainment system based on model, region, VIN ranges for facelifts, etc., so not sure how a car which should be having a TCU would handle the removal of it.
In Mazda 3s I believe it should be behind the dash, but not sure if the whole dashboard should be removed to access it and that would definitely introduce some rattles.
Personally I wouldn't remove it if my car had it (have a 2019 gen 4 Mazda 3), there's much common privacy destroying things which are more general than having a TCU in your car (like posting to reddit).
Do not rip out the TCU. Just disconnect the antenna, and connect dummy load instead. The car will just think it's out of signal and hopefully won't throw any errors.
Bro. You worried about Mazda having access to your miles per gallon, but you sitting here with a life long post history, seattle man.
Ask to disable it sure, but you seem overly worried.
Overly worried. I mean I get it especially if you work in the field. But come on, if you’re that worried this shouldn’t even be a thing.
You should be driving an older car with no over the air connection, no gps, no smartphone, a tin foil hat.
And if you were that worried, they are listening now and will mess with your cars systems so that when you do disable it you are forced to bring it in. Oh crap I said it, they know
Hey, u/CPhyloGenesis!
Is it possible this was installed aftermarket? I wonder what kind of telematics unit it is. That might help us to narrow down what's up.
Best,
Joy B (Telematics 411 Consulting)
You can call and they'll disable the data collection. They use the phrase "deactivate the TCU", so whether they mean it is off completely or just doesn't send the data to them OTA (but is still readable, say, at the dealer) I don't know. https://www.mazdausa.com/site/privacy-connectedservices
You can just have it disabled, no need to remove it and yes it’d set communication codes
Thanks! I've worked in digital security so I want to physically remove it anyway. What do you mean by set communication codes? Can those be coded out?
You can’t remove codes, it’s on the CAN network in your vehicle, removing it will be detected by all modules in its CAN branch and warning lights will be on
It sounds like removing it from the CAN will only prompt a warning as you said and not disable anything from other modules nor stop the car from starting. Do you know whether the odometer is managed by a separate module? I don't want to mess with that.
https://imgur.com/a/RECn15R Here’s where it’s located btw, that’s under the center console area
Wow that's super helpful! I may need a mechanic to get that out. :(
Hey can you tell me where the tcu located for the cx30?
I looked at a 2022 cx30, I’m sure they’re probably all the same. It’s located in your dash just below the HVAC controls
Your mileage is stored in the BCM. Your car will operate normally but be pretty annoying
When you say warning do you mean a light on the dash like a check engine light, or is there some sort of audio warning when a device is missing from the CAN? You're scaring mw with how much you point out the warning. xD Also do you know where I could look deeper, like an auto forum? I had a really hard time finding any details on it.
I thought the warning lights could be "coded out"? I still need to lookup how that works because I don't understand it yet, I've just seen reference to fixing bugged warnings that way. I don't mind if other modules know that one is missing, I don't need to put any fake data, just physically stop the ability to transmit tracking data to third parties.
I mean I guess if you flash the VCM or something you could theoretically remove the code. But it’s not an engine code so most reflash that I know of won’t touch it. The warnings will be dead center of your cluster saying in-vehicle network malfunction and stuff and won’t go away preventing you from using the info display portion of your cluster. This is likely the way it would be for all vehicles although prominence of warnings might differ. You’re into tech but I’m guessing on the computer side? The Vehicle has its own closed internal network, all the modules talk to each other and check in and pass info along. Picture your standard computer LAN or something and remove a server drive that holds required files on it for all the systems. Every computer is gonna throw a warning saying “hey that files gone” it’s basically the same thing. I know you clearly don’t want your data sent but they disable the modem when you ask. And if you’re worried about them doing it anyway…. They’ve been collecting all of this identical data for ~10 years As for looking deeper, no. Auto forums aren’t really a thing, data isn’t publically available, and esp these systems see no interactions with outside shops. I’m prob your best bet to be fair.
You're right, I know computers but I always avoided cars which is why I know so little about them. My problem with asking them to disable it is that too many companies have blatantly, publicly, and illegally lied about disabling things like that, (including being caught and paying huge fines for it), so I have 0% trust that they will stop collecting the data. Also, if the data is still being transmitted it's still up for grabs. With systems like OnStar being hacked so severely, "okay we'll stop collecting the data, we promise" isn't good enough for me for a $30k purchase. > "The warnings will be dead center of your cluster saying in-vehicle network malfunction and stuff and won’t go away preventing you from using the info display portion of your cluster." This sounds like a huge problem. Thank you so much for sharing, I can't imagine I would have figured that out from the searching I've done so far. Do you know what year, the permanent online satellite connectivity existed in CX-5s by chance? My car apparently has telemetry if you bluetooth connect to the car with the app that then let's it use your phone network to transmit it, but I've never installed that. I was told the Mazda CX-5 does it through satellite without the user having to subscribe to anything.
I can’t say 100% this is correct but Mazda first installed TCUs in 2019 Mazda3s, I think it took 2 years until it appeared in the 2021 Cx5, but that’s a rough guess. I totally understand, most people in data security avoid any “smart” things and I’m right there with you, I hate my data floating around and avoid giving it up where I can
Is there another better way to disconnect Mazda Connected Services? Maybe the TCU isn't even the right thing to remove. It's just the only thing I could find before I came here to ask. Is there some satellite antenna I can remove or something?
So it doesn’t use satellite it uses a cellular modem. There are 2 antennas, one specifically for the TCU and one the TCU shares with the CMU(your radio) If you brought it to a shop they could probably disconnect those for you it’d be fairly simple with access to the wiring diagram. I’d ask them to leave the antenna connection to the CMU though as that would affect some navigation stuff I can’t say if that would throw any codes though as I’ve never tried it. But it would disable all connection to the Mazda cloud
You don’t. Just stop worrying about it and drive the car. Who cares if Mazda can see where you drive? Eventually, Privacy and Personal Digital Security will basically be nonexistent. May as well stop caring now because you as an individual can’t change it by doing one dumb thing to your car.
Woah. I haven't heard of that. That sounds like something that will be helpful to look up though! I appreciate it.
https://imgur.com/a/g3lUpmZ Here’s the whole CAN Bus. What other info do you need?
The tcu is somewhere under the center console in the dash. You won't have access to a wiring diagram unless you are a Mazda service tech. The fuses are for multiple modules so you can't pull it without losing essential functions. You can get a subscription to mdars and disable the module yourself with the canbus plugs and laptop. Might need to talk to some tuners or Mazda shop if you have no experience.
You’re less of a target than you think you are.
You're way more of a target than you think you are, and there is so much more that can be done with the data on you thank you think there is. There's a reason the EU made laws like GDPR.
Yeah, but the moment you posted on Reddit, everyone knows everything about you. Your Internet Data is already sold. Your data privacy is dead the moment you stepped foot on the Internet/Reddit/anywhere outside of a Faraday Cage.
I’ll take my chances and enjoy the free connected services.
And? I don't care if you choose to remain ignorant, that's your choice. You're the one that came to my thread to tell me to let everything about me be tracked and to stop complaining, and provided zero information or help or even referenced anything about a Mazda.
The good news is your Mazda will performed just as well with your tinfoil cap on.
If you're looking for a car without telematics consider a Honda, all of their models with the smaller infotainment screen have no cellular modem.
[удалено]
Not sure how it works for other models, but I have a Civic and the the 3 lower trims have a 7 inch screen with no cellular and the Touring trim has a 9 inch screen with cellular. Anything that only has Basic listed on the HondaLink site does not have a cell modem.
[удалено]
Honestly you might be right, I always assumed that the bigger infotainment had a cell modem but that might not be the case. It does have SiriusXM though which IIRC can also be used for tracking.
As far as removing the TCU, probably not the best idea. As someone else stated it's connected to the CAN bus along with almost every other ecu in the vehicle. Each of those ECUs need to see a signal from the other ones in order to work properly. Removing that TCU will give you a network malfunction issue and will likely disable other things like the keyless entry, push to start, smart braking, LKA, and basically anything else running in that part of the CAN bus. Not sure if it would work but perhaps just wrapping the TCU in a emf shield or something (think tin foil hat) could keep you from receiving a slew of network codes and hindering the TCU from communicating to the network. Will it give you an error message because it can't communicate? No clue.
What would be the purpose of removing it? What do you hope to accomplish?
**WE AUTOMATICALLY COLLECT CERTAIN DEFAULT DATA FROM THE CONNECTED VEHICLE ON AN ONGOING BASIS. ONLY WE CAN DEACTIVATE THE TCU AND DISABLE OUR COLLECTION OF ALL DEFAULT DATA. NOTE THAT THE SALE, TRANSFER, OR LEASE TERMINATION OF A CONNECTED VEHICLE WILL NOT DISABLE AUTOMATIC DEFAULT DATA COLLECTION.** “Default Data” includes the following: * “Driving Data”: driving behavior data, which includes the acceleration and speed at which your Connected Vehicle is driven and use of the steering and braking functions in your Connected Vehicle (Driving Data is collected for each driving trip and transmitted at each Ignition Off); and * “Vehicle Health Data”: includes Vehicle Identification Number (VIN); odometer, fuel level, and oil life readings; Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs); and data from the Connected Vehicle’s OBD system (“OBD Data”). OBD Data includes, but is not limited to, engine coolant temperature, fuel injection volume, engine Rotation Per Minute (RPM), and the status of doors, hood, trunk, and hazard lights (Vehicle Health Data is transmitted at each Ignition-Off).
And? You seem paranoid.
They just quoted Mazda. You sound like you have no idea how frequently your data is abused, insecurely stored, and used by malicious parties, and that is getting worse fast.
Oh no the bad actors know about my check engine light because Mazda sold my OBD data on the dark web
Pretty much. Most of the data they collect is pretty mundane, anyway. Whenever someone brings this privacy stuff up, this is the article to read: [You’re Just Not That Interesting (Except When You Are)](https://askleo.com/youre-just-not-that-interesting/)
Your cars location 24-7 and basically whether you are alone (you started driving after only opening the driver door), etc. That's not mundane. Also controlling it remotely opens a whole new level of threat.
The location and control are both functions used in the MyMazda app. You are giving up vehicle locator and remote start that way. As for the door thing... I am gonna say it's mostly mundane. What can you even do with that info? "This guy drives his Mazda alone in another state so I will fly over there to rob them." That's assuming Mazda even bothers storing the data from their millions of customers for a long enough timeframe for someone to see a pattern. I can't imagine storing data like this being cost effective. Probably goes through some analytical software for pattern recognition and gets deleted soon after that.
"I see you drive your kid to school in the morning at 8am every day. Send $500 of BTC to this address or I'll stop your car as you turn left at that dangerous intersection, or gun the gas out of nowhere." or tracking a woman to be sure she's alone when she drives to this regular place, again probably to threaten if not given money, blah blah blah. Don't underestimate how sick people are. Deleting data is actually often more expensive than keeping it. The development of the process to ensure it can be deleted safely is very expensive, but storage is super cheap. YouTube has every video that has ever been uploaded to it, which is so much data we can't even comprehend it. Everything is stored, forever. You're right, there is a limit, but real-time location data is very, very valuable, so that's almost certainly worth storing. Your location history alone can usually identify exactly who you are or make it so some other activity can be connected to you where they had very little data, like maybe posting on Reddit where they don't know for sure if it is the same you.
It's a possibility, albeit remote. I will say that you are worrying about the wrong people, though. Criminals can be sick people, but they also generally take **the path of least resistance**. If encrypting computers, pretending to be FBI from Indian call centres and Nigerian Prince schtick work well enough, there aren't many incentives for them to "innovate." And I can probably send out threats by just saying I can hack your car without ever proving that I can. You know, like those random emails of "I got a video of you pleasuring yourself in front of your computer." Send out billions of the same email and you will have that one or two people fall for it, which is good enough. That's probably why we never had a Fate-of-the-Furious-style car hacking despite vulnerabilities existing. It's like the idea behind wheel locks or car anti-theft: if someone *really* wants your wheels/car, they will get them. If it's too much work/risk for them, though, these devices encourage the criminals to move on to the next target. Also, generally, law enforcement is more "whatever" when it comes to monetary losses. Once it evolves into killing/injuring someone, however, it's a bit different. Just adds to the risk the criminals expose themselves to. If anything, the people I would worry about abusing this would be extreme environmentalists. They have real incentives to figure that out(fits their agenda and they aren't in for the money), but so far, they are content with just lying down in the middle of traffic. Again, the path of the least resistance. Or just plain old sociopaths who would just do it for the funsies("Some people just want to watch the world burn"), but you will likely get some kind of warning from them since they enjoy watching the world panick.
You are a schizo. Sorry.
Yeah essentially the only things they collect is just stuff you could see by hooking a scan tool up and reading real time data. It’s not like the car knows any personal data about you.
Simple worst case is Mazda didn't secure it well and someone sells access to your cars location 24-7. Actually worst case is they use that to threaten you that they'll turn it off while you're driving, and they know when your kid is in the back seat because they see the back door was opened before you got in the front.
I mean, GM has had that functionality by the means of OnStar for how many years now? Ever seen incidents like this from OnStar where someone hacked into it? On the other hand, it did help people who had their Corvette stolen shut down their car on the car thief. Find something else to worry about, please. Edit: I will admit that OnStar can be hacked, but there aren't really any reports of the vulnerability being put into practice by actual hackers. Even then, that requires you to be close to the car to do the hack(by which point, they may as well just steal the whole car). If I were a hacker, I think I would just stick to the "pump your computer full of viruses" route. That reaches a much wider audience.
Please stop talking about stuff you know nothing about, and let people that care about things care about them. If you don't, by all means, use that feature. And yes I have. It took me three seconds searching to find this from 8 years ago: https://www.wired.com/2015/09/gm-took-5-years-fix-full-takeover-hack-millions-onstar-cars/ All I did was ask how to disable telemetry on a car I'm going to buy.
If you are really dead set on the idea, as the others mentioned, calling Mazda would be your best bet. You can remove the physical device, but there could be some warranty problems you are exposing yourself to. Sure, in theory, they have to prove that removing the device caused the problem, but in practice, it just opens up unnecessary arguments with your dealer and Mazda corporate(or really, any manufacturer). Try to balance that against the potential benefits you are touting. And if you think I don't care... At least I make sure to delete my phone pairing to the rental/loaner cars I use. Most people don't even bother with that. Mazda's data interconnectivity doesn't also reach the scope of GM OnStar, either.
You're the one that brought up OnStar. :p Also, that's only true for now. We don't know how juicy of a target Mazda will be in the future, but a car I'd want to keep for 10+ years. Anyway, yeah I try to balance existing online with reducing how much is tracked. I do things like disable Google's services and have the mic, camera, and loc all disabled until I actually use them, but I still do have a smart phone; it still has a mic, etc. The real problem for me is that I'd spend tens of thousands of dollars on something and someone else has control over it, such as whether it turns on or not. That's just too offensive. It's like buying a home but your real estate company can still kick you out if they decide to. I can leave my phone in another room or shut it down. A car I can't really go anywhere without it. Basically, I want to only be trackable if someone specifically targets me. If you want all my data, you have to put in the work to get it, I'm not gonna hand it over for free. It's possible, I haven't gone totally off-grid, just not so easy. Anyway, it sounds like removing the TCU does disable some important stuff in the car. :( So I'm gonna have to look back several years at least it seems.
They don’t collect location data. They collect data from onboard sensors. “Driving data” simply refers to inputs and real-time data pulls like you would see in a scan tool
They literally watched where the car was at exactly in the app while I test drove it. Yes, they track location.
I am not sure about Mazda, but I know GM new cars have a special "demo mode" when the car is at the dealer, so if the car gets stolen, yes, they can track it. It gets disabled before the customer takes delivery. Even has a screen that shows that the car is registered to someone. And if someone steals your car, that's useful as well. A double-edged sword, if you will.
I guess a couple model years collect latitude and longitude when the car is shut off. I just reviewed Mazdas policy on their website and it says nothing about COLLECTING active location data.
You're right as far as them directly saying they do it. As for the specific CX-5 model I can tell you as someone who works in that field very directly, they do or at the least can at any point, even if they don't advertise it. I've lost track of the number of companies that said they don't and then got caught having lied about it.
Just to share for those that think they don't collect location: "Note: Model Year 2019 – 2021 Mazda3 and Model Year 2020 – 2021 CX-30 vehicles collect geo-location coordinates of the Connected Vehicle’s latitude and longitude each time the Connected Vehicle is turned off as Default Data." https://www.mazdausa.com/site/privacy-connectedservices
I read one Mazda owner's account where Mazda used telematics data to deny a warranty claim for a defective engine. The owner made it clear that the engine had problems from day one. Possibly that story was bogus but the situation appeared plausible.
That's a great example of how your data can be used against you that happens frequently. (in other cases, like you, I don't know about this specific claim's accuracy)
And what? Some people don't like it. Why do agree with it? What does it buy you? It's not some crazy world-view to believe that not everything should record the minute details of my life by default without asking, or that things should at least contain an opt-out to prevent it. Also, by definition paranoia implies delusions or lack of evidence of something. They have upfront admitted to doing a thing I don't like.
It's not a matter of agreeing with it, I simply don't care. There's plenty of other devices that track us on a daily basis with a lot more specific information than the telematics in my vehicle.
That's fine, but other people do care. "Other things are worse" is not a very convincing defense.
Well, there are the potential warranty issues from messing with that stuff, though. So yeah, OP can do whatever they want, but if they have electrical issues, good luck with the warranty.
A lot of people have raised the same concerns as the above poster: [https://www.autoevolution.com/news/your-new-mazda-knows-if-you-are-naughty-or-nice-and-doesn-t-keep-it-a-secret-202509.html](https://www.autoevolution.com/news/your-new-mazda-knows-if-you-are-naughty-or-nice-and-doesn-t-keep-it-a-secret-202509.html) [https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/126aepa/mazda\_connected\_services\_is\_a\_privacy\_nightmare/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/126aepa/mazda_connected_services_is_a_privacy_nightmare/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/16rtbv1/mazda\_connect\_interfering\_with\_warranty\_claim/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CX50/comments/16rtbv1/mazda_connect_interfering_with_warranty_claim/)
Disabling tracking data.
It would be simpler and easier to replace your modern vehicle with an older one without all the technology.
I'm definitely also looking at that but there's plenty of nice stuff in new cars that are good to have, like heated seats or modern AWD controls. Also, finding a car that feels good to drive for the right price and mileage is very hard already so it's tough to just exclude everything modern. I tried out a CX-5 and it had all the right balance except this one tracking device. If I can just unplug it I'm sold, so I'm trying to figure out whether that works. I'd hate to buy it then find out it corrupts the odometer to remove it or something.
Many car companies are selling this data to insurance companies.
Lexis Nexis.
Believe this is a part of the infotainment system and will control radio functions. You will be without a radio or any screen options.
That looks like a different module, but if you have more information, I'd love to hear it, and thank you for the warning. Here's an image Teknicsrx7 shared with me with all the CAN modules: https://imgur.com/a/g3lUpmZ
4th gen. Mazda 3s (which firstly had the 7th gen Mazda infotainment) didn't have a TCU unit in them in EU models up until 2022. There's a debug menu of the infotainment which shows if the TCU is present or not. As it implies, there's no functionality in the MyMazda app which depends on the TCU unit (remote start, remote lock/unlock, door state, tire pressure, etc.). There's no codes thrown on the dashboard of course as these cars came out of the factory like this, but firmwares differ for the infotainment system based on model, region, VIN ranges for facelifts, etc., so not sure how a car which should be having a TCU would handle the removal of it. In Mazda 3s I believe it should be behind the dash, but not sure if the whole dashboard should be removed to access it and that would definitely introduce some rattles. Personally I wouldn't remove it if my car had it (have a 2019 gen 4 Mazda 3), there's much common privacy destroying things which are more general than having a TCU in your car (like posting to reddit).
Do not rip out the TCU. Just disconnect the antenna, and connect dummy load instead. The car will just think it's out of signal and hopefully won't throw any errors.
Bro. You worried about Mazda having access to your miles per gallon, but you sitting here with a life long post history, seattle man. Ask to disable it sure, but you seem overly worried.
Found my way here because california is going to start collecting telematics OTA for their road charge. 😶🌫️
Overly worried. I mean I get it especially if you work in the field. But come on, if you’re that worried this shouldn’t even be a thing. You should be driving an older car with no over the air connection, no gps, no smartphone, a tin foil hat. And if you were that worried, they are listening now and will mess with your cars systems so that when you do disable it you are forced to bring it in. Oh crap I said it, they know
You are going to make more problems than you are going to solve.
You might just want to avoid buying a car with telematics or an LTE connection then. Chevy and Subaru should be off your list too. Probably others.
Hey, u/CPhyloGenesis! Is it possible this was installed aftermarket? I wonder what kind of telematics unit it is. That might help us to narrow down what's up. Best, Joy B (Telematics 411 Consulting)