You might not know this; your Cars have your location. While some of the recent cars have a GPS built-in which rules out the HOW factor, certain companies can still access your location in real-time without a GPS.
I don’t know about you, but knowing that an organization has the real-time location of my vehicle sends chills down my spine. The tech looks straight from a Sci-Fi movie and yet it is real.
“Ulysses can provide our clients with the ability to remotely geolocate vehicles in nearly every country except for North Korea and Cuba on a near real-time basis,” the document, written by contractor The Ulysses Group, reads.
To begin with, the thought that Companies around the world have so much of my information, now including my vehicle’s real-time location, is very unsettling. We never gave authority to anyone including our government, forget some private company, to track us. Yet this Gray Market is growing at a record pace.
About Ulysses:
Ulysses Group is a Charleston, South Carolina-based Surveillance that claims to offer “cellular interception and jamming technology, hidden video recorders, and military training such as tactical driving” according to their Website. Now, the description alone scares me enough.
What kind of company offers Cellular Interception and Tactical Military training all at once? Aren’t these two supposed to be two different industries? It seems like a Government Workshop to develop/do anything and everything that they can to get access to the personal lives of every citizen around the world under one hood.
Ulysses is known to have worked with SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command), a Military Branch that deals with counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and special reconnaissance.
Ulysses now claims that it can access the near Real-Time information of 15 Billion vehicles around the world and wants to sell this information to the US Military. However, the deal hasn’t been closed yet.
Can Ulysses Spy Cars around the World?
Ulysses Specializes in Spying on different things be it cameras, be it cars, or be it anything. Though the company never admitted it, it seems to be working FOR the Government rather than WITH the Government.
Vehicle Manufacturers (OEMs) equip a lot of different sensors in a vehicle for various purposes. The data collected by those sensors is sent to the OEMs through vehicle-embedded communication systems. This data can easily be recollected by Aggregator Companies and can be sold as a whole product to an interested buyer.
The document given above also states the same thing under the fancy name of TELEMATICS ENABLED INTELLIGENCE.
‘IS IT EVEN LEGAL’ is the first thing that comes to mind. Let me tell you this, don’t even bother arguing about that. It is too high-profile to even be under discussion on grounds of Legality.
How Does This Deal Between Ulysses And The Us Military Fits In The Whole Scenario?
I don’t think the world’s citizens are under threat from anyone around the world except their government. My motive is not to curse any Government. But this Deal fits in the Situation like it was custom made for the situation.
In the world where we are constantly being tracked and hacked, our data is being stolen, the very companies responsible for our data privacy are themselves selling our data, how safe are we? Now Real-time Locations of Vehicle? What next, a transmitter inside our body that can track us?
Our Digital Footprint is increasing over time, our preferences, taste, relations are exposed. This is the time we take it seriously. Though it isn’t really easy to stop deals like the one mentioned above, we can still take measures that can help minimize the information that the Internet knows about us.
How To Protect Yourself from Being Tracked Everywhere?
As I mentioned earlier, if this Deal gets signed, there is no conceivable easy way to prevent yourself from being tracked unless you make your custom car. However, if we are aware, we can try and expose as least as possible about ourselves on the Internet. There are a few security measures that we can take –
1. Don’t be addicted to every new gadget that comes out:
The speed at which the devices like Amazon Echo got sold tells a lot about us. We are willing to give up our privacy in return for just a little comfort. There is no potential limit to what these devices can tell you. Put it simply, a lot.
2. Be wary of what you share about yourself:
In this Digital Age, people are willingly sharing their whole lives on the Internet for anyone to see – Spouses, friends, Places they visit, people they meet, which Political Party they support, their Religious beliefs, their Academics, their Shortcomings, their Vulnerabilities, and whatnot.
Put a Brake and be mindful of what you share about yourself on the Internet. Make sure the information you share is directed to the right person only and is not available for people at large to look at.
3. Use Security Measures:
When you are surfing the web, you are being tracked at every moment if you don’t employ the right security. Your Device’s IP Address, your location, and whatnot. There is a way to stop all this and that is called a VPN. A VPN employs various security measures to hide your identity, your location, and your data to keep you anonymous and safe on the Internet.
Though there are various VPNs available in the market, we suggest using Systweak VPN for uncompromised security and anonymity if you are using a Windows Machine.
If otherwise, know about the Best Mac VPNs available in the market.
Also Read: NordVPN vs ExpressVPN vs Systweak VPN – The Ultimate Comparison
Systweak VPN:
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- IP Address Masking: Systweak VPN reroutes the data through its servers around the Globe to hide the users’ original IP Address and mask it with the different one to promote Anonymity.
- AES 256 Bit Encryption: Systweak VPN employs AES 256-Bit Encryption Standard, the best in Industry, to encrypt the data that you send over the internet so, even if someone gets ahold of what you sent on the web, it will take at least a million years to decrypt it.
- IKev2 Tunneling: Systweak VPN employs IKev2 Tunneling Protocol which creates a Virtual Hidden Tunnel to send the data over the web to promote Data Security.
Considering these and many more features, Systweak VPN can help you improve your Anonymity over the web.
So, this was all about Car Spying, Ulysses, US Military, and Digital Footprint. I hope you found this information Intriguing and thought-provoking. Do share your views on this in the comment section below. Keep Visiting Tweak Library for more such tech-related content.
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