“Removing the Modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid”
May 14th, 2026Via: Arkadiy Tetelman:
Modern cars are computers on wheels – they have more sensors than you can count and are constantly phoning home with telemetry data like your location, speed, fuel levels, sudden accelerations/decelerations, video footage, driver attention data from eye monitoring systems, and hundreds of other data points. Cars have inward- and outward-facing cameras. They have microphones. They have always-on modems. It’s all enabled by default with difficult or meaningless opt-outs, and your data is monetized through brokers like LexisNexis or Verisk. This all brings a host of security and privacy issues…
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In this blog post, rather than relying on companies’ promises or meaningless opt-outs, we’re going to stop the data at the source by physically removing the modem (the DCM, or Data Communication Module) as well as the built-in GPS on my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid, so the car will no longer have the capability to send any telemetry data back home.
