Originally Posted by NovaTime

I've written my representatives, but remember, they never even read the letters, a staffer does. It takes a slew of letters to get a representative to do anything about it. I think the real issue is that the general public is not aware of these black boxes installed in vehicles. The dealer sure as hell doesn't say anything about it, and there is no mention of it in your owner's manual, etc.

I don't really do anything illegal except for the occasionally hauling on the highway and/or maybe whipping a ford at a reasonable speed. Of course they can track your vehicle, it has a dedicated power source and is large enough where you wouldn't even know it! I'm just waiting for the day that you go in for an inspection, they read your OBD port and then the police mail you tickets for every time you exceeded 70-75 miles per hour. If they can install red light cameras, they can certainly write tickets based on your PCM readings.

Originally Posted by NovaTime

You can be tracked by cell phone towers, but they can't give a GPS coordinate...yet. In the Scott Peterson case, they were tracking him by cellular telephone. If you are worried about being tracked, there is nothing you can do about it when your phone is on, especially with a GSM phone as all the new technology is being made for GSM (global system for mobil telephones). On the flip side, if something happens to you, that is damn good news.

Concerning the truck, it isn't like my cell phone that I can turn off, and this pisses me off. Does anyone know where it is so that I can remove it?

Originally Posted by marc_w

I'm not worried about OnStar either.

You can hear that thing dial up when you turn it on. It took them a few moments to locate where I was, when my girlfriend rang them up to ask for directions. I don't think it's something they're going to be running full-time on us.

Another case: A friend of mine works at a salvage yard. He turned the keys on a crashed vehicle to get the ODO reading off of it. OnStar dialed up, and an operator came on asking about the crash, and if everyone is okay. My friend explained the car was crashed a few weeks back, and it's at a salvage yard now. To me, it doesn't sound like they have the capability to accurately track any certain vehicle, nevermine all XXX,XXX thousand vehicles running it.

Originally Posted by 2MuchRiceMakesMeSick

GPS has what is called a fix on the satellites 100% of the time even with the car off. The only way to release is to disconnect the battery. You are connected all the time, how do you think they open your doors if you call them? The dialing thing is just verifying your service with onstar.

Maybe they cant track all the BILLIONS of people, but whos to say that they wont track YOU.

Originally Posted by F8L Z71

All existance as we know it will be turned upside down and inside out. Day will become night, the sun will burn cold, water won't feel wet and nothng other than chicken will taste like chicken... Don't do it bro, it will make baby Jesus sad.

I see what you guys are saying butI highly doubt there is much that can be done about privacy. I was recently watching a show on Discovery where they said the average American is caught on video survailance 70+times a day. Europeans are caught about 300+times a day.. We're always being watched. Now it's not a prying type of voyuer type thing but if you think you are alone and pick your nose chances are good someone could have saw it if they were watching the screen.