honda – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Wyden Tells FTC: Unchecked Automakers Are Still Spying On Their Customers At Massive Scale

from the monetizing-your-every-fart dept

Automakers are among the worst “tech” companies in America when it comes to your privacy. They hoover up an ocean of contact, location and behavior data from your car and phone, don’t really clearly tell you they’re doing it, then sell access to that data to a rotating crop of super dodgy and largely unregulated data brokers who routinely fail to secure it properly.

Last March the New York Times revealed that automakers like GM also routinely sell access to driver behavior data to insurance companies, which then use that data to justify jacking up your rates. The practice isn’t clearly disclosed to consumers, and resulted in 11 federal lawsuits in less than a month.

An update from Senator Ron Wyden’s office indicates automakers haven’t changed their habits yet. His office took a specific look at GM, Honda, and Hyundai, who use “dark patterns” (read: deception) to trick users into sharing access to all manner of sensitive data. The companies then turn around and sell access to data brokers like Verisk for less money than you’d think:

“Hyundai shared data from 1.7 million cars with Verisk, which paid Hyundai 1,043,315.69,or61centspercar…Hondashareddatafrom97,000carswiththedatabrokerVerisk,whichpaidHonda1,043,315.69, or 61 cents per car…Honda shared data from 97,000 cars with the data broker Verisk, which paid Honda 1,043,315.69,or61centspercar…Hondashareddatafrom97,000carswiththedatabrokerVerisk,whichpaidHonda25,920, or 26 cents per car.”

Again, this data includes everything from the way you drive and where you drive, to data gleaned from your phone. This data is then openly sold to data brokers who often fail to secure it. Wyden’s office recently found that one data broker sold the location data of abortion clinic visitors to right wing activists, who then used the data to target vulnerable women with health care misinformation.

To be clear: (and this is something that routinely gets lost in press coverage and analysis) this is all made possible because the U.S. is too corrupt to pass even a baseline privacy law for the internet era. Companies and their executives know there’s no real punishment for lax security and privacy standards outside of the occasional wrist slap fine, so nothing really changes.

Last year Mozilla released a report showcasing how the auto industry has some of the worst privacy practices of any tech industry in America (no small feat). Massive amounts of driver behavior is collected by your car, and even more is hoovered up from your smartphone every time you connect. This data isn’t secured, often isn’t encrypted, and is sold to a long list of dodgy, unregulated middlemen. It’s only a matter of time before we see a scandal that makes all past scandals look quaint in comparison.

Wyden’s office is clear to note that what’s been uncovered so far is likely only the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the sloppy collection and monetization of user data, and urged the FTC to hold automakers, data brokers, and company executives accountable.

Filed Under: automakers, data brokers, location data, privacy, ron wyden, security, surveillance
Companies: gm, honda, hyundai

Honda Just Declared War On 3D Printer Makers Community

from the naughty-parts dept

It’s been a bit since we’ve talked about 3D printing, which I mostly took to mean that the world realized that there was no massive threat here and that we all collectively decided to make this a non-controversy. Early on there was some noise made about larger companies viewing the ability for the public to manufacture certain things at home with these printers being a copyright, patent, or trademark concern. And sure, there was some of that. Especially when it came to guns. But, by and large, 3D printing has become a full on thing for hobbyists and maker communities.

Perhaps one of the widest applications of 3D printing has been in the automotive parts space. There are plenty of sites where you can get print files for auto parts, and some car manufacturers have actually gone ahead and released those files to those sites themselves. Or, if you’re Honda, apparently, you decided that all of this is trademark infringement and shotgun-blast takedown requests to all the 3D print sites you can find.

Recently, I noticed a part that I made for my Honda Accord was removed from Printables, the newly rebranded 3D printing repository offered by Prusa. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for it, but I didn’t think anything else about it…until reports of a mass deletion started popping up on Reddit.

“I can confirm to you that we have received a letter from a lawyer representing Honda, informing us that we were required to remove any model which used ‘Honda’ in the listing, the model itself, or one of several trademarks/logos also associated with Honda,” a Prusa spokesperson told The Drive in an email. “This will also be related to the naming of the files it self (sic), as for Honda this would be considered as a violation of their trademark/patents.”

As you often find the moment trademark law is mentioned in one of these disputes, the source post from The Drive falls all over itself to mention that Honda must enforce its trademarks or risk losing them. That is only as true as a nuance-free, single sentence about trademark law could possibly be, of course. Honda does have to enforce its trademarks… when there are instances of public confusion as to the source of products. That isn’t what’s happening here. By and large, every one of these files that is being taken down is including Honda trademarks merely as descriptions of what cars the part is going to work with. Using logos and such is likely a valid concern, but that isn’t the same as file names and descriptions.

Honda hit several other sites with the same takedown requests. And, because this is all monumentally stupid, what gets taken down and what doesn’t appears to directly relate to the order in which words in the description are used.

A lot of it comes down to wording. Some files that were taken down were named something along the lines of “Honda Civic Cup Holder,” whereas others were titled similar to the likeness of “Cup Holder for Honda Civic.” The order of that wording matters and could be the reason Honda responded in the way it did, and it’s why Prusa obliged by taking down all items that referenced the Honda brand.

As with all great comedy, there is logic in there… but that logic is petty and dumb. Prusa thinks similarly, claiming that it’s reaching out to other manufacturers to help them see that there is no threat here, only an opportunity to drive more car sales given that customers can have ready access to replacement parts should they break down.

The comments on the post drive home the downside for Honda, as well. The most poingant of them was probably, “Time to start using torrent files again.” Or, hey, maybe Honda could back off this desire for total control a tad and embrace the maker community instead, since they’re going to get their 3D print files one way or the other.

Filed Under: 3d printing, car parts, trademark
Companies: honda

Auto Finance Company Sues Massachusetts City Over Its Unconstitutional Sale Of Seized Vehicles

from the money-v-power dept

An opponent of asset forfeiture has arisen from an unexpected place. Honda’s finance division has taken the city of Revere, Massachusetts to court over the seizure and sale of a vehicle it still technically owned.

American Honda Finance Corp., based in California, alleged in its lawsuit filed Feb. 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that its constitutional rights were violated when a Honda Civic was seized in 2016 by Revere’s police department.

“Plaintiff brings this action to remedy a deprivation of its long-settled and fundamental rights to be free from unreasonable seizures and to due process of law under the United States Constitution,” American Honda Finance Corp. said in its 13-page complaint.

The complaint [PDF] makes it clear the company thinks this is some bullshit: seizing and selling a vehicle that still belongs to the company holding the lien. Until the vehicle is paid off, Honda still owns the car. But Massachusetts law enforcement doesn’t appear to care who owns the car so long as they get to profit from its sale. The narrative detailed in the lawsuit makes it clear zero effort was made to make the car’s real owner aware of the city’s plans for the seized car.

On or about November 2, 2016, HONDA obtained a purchase money security interest and lien in The Subject Vehicle.

On November 28, 2016, The Subject Vehicle was officially titled in the State of New York with Shanasia Hackworth recorded as the owner and HONDA recorded as the first priority lienholder.

On or about December 30, 2016, REVERE took possession and custody of The Subject Vehicle pursuant to REVERE’s police officers acting in the course of their duties as law enforcement officers.

On or about December 30, 2016, REVERE, through its police officers acting in the cause of their duties as law enforcement officers, and pursuant to laws enacted to further official state interests, directed Mario’s Service Center, Inc. to tow and detain The Subject Vehicle.

On or about December 30, 2016, Mario’s Service Center, Inc. towed The Subject Vehicle and retained The Subject Vehicle on behalf of REVERE as part of an “investigation.”

REVERE did not notify HONDA that The Subject Vehicle had been seized.

REVERE thereafter concluded its investigation. REVERE did not, thereafter, return The Subject Vehicle to HONDA or anyone else. Instead, REVERE authorized its agent, Mario’s Towing Service Center, Inc., to detain and dispose of the vehicle pursuant to Massachusetts G.L.c. 255, §39A.

REVERE did not notify HONDA that after the investigation ended that REVERE authorized Mario’s Towing Service Center, Inc. to detain and dispose of The Subject Vehicle.

REVERE did not ensure that its agent, Mario’s Towing Service Center, Inc., notified HONDA that REVERE had authorized detention and disposal of the Subject Vehicle.

On or about May 18, 2017, REVERE’s agent, Mario’s Towing Service Center, Inc., sold The Subject Vehicle and The Subject Vehicle was retitled through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation with HONDA’s lien not recorded on said title.

Under Massachusetts law the sale pursuant to Massachusetts G.L.c 255, §39A and subsequent retitling extinguished HONDA’s property interest in The Subject Vehicle.

At no time prior to the sale or retitling of The Subject Vehicle did REVERE or any person provide any notice to HONDA relating to The Subject Vehicle.

There’s a genuine question of property interest in a vehicle whose title still resides with the financing company. This can’t be the first time a company has complained about a vehicle of theirs being auctioned off without notice, but this is the first federal complaint I’ve seen directly challenging a state’s seizure of vehicles from drivers who don’t actually own the vehicles they’re driving.

This was filed ten days before the Supreme Court held that certain forms of asset forfeiture violate Constitutional protections against excessive fines. Honda’s complaint seems to anticipate the high court’s displeasure with abusive forfeitures and pulls no punches in its description of the program the city of Revere participate in. (Emphasis in the original.)

Massachusetts G.L.c. 255, §39A effectuates the Commonwealth’s interest in enforcing traffic laws and in protecting the public from hazardous street conditions. The statute provides a means for the state to compensate private parties who assist the state by towing and storing vehicles at the direction of police. The statute has, however, fallen out of step with modern developments in constitutional law which confirm that a duly perfected security interest and lien in a vehicle is a constitutionally protected property right.

A program that takes property away from the property’s true owner — an entity completely disconnected from the underlying criminal activity/accusations — appears to be a violation of the company’s Constitutional rights, if not the greater protections given to property owners by the state’s constitution. The suit alleges a host of violated rights, as well as conversion under state law, arguing the sale of the vehicle without notifying the lien holder is basically theft of Honda’s property.

Is it going to take the deep pockets of pissed off corporations to finally make a serious dent in abusive forfeiture programs? It might. This case may be more tow-and-sell than most forfeitures, but the principle behind it — the state depriving companies of their property without notice — is identical. If this case adds to the judicial dialog on forfeiture programs, I’m all for it.

Filed Under: asset forfeiture, cars, leasing, massachusetts, ownership, theft
Companies: honda

Honda Tried To Get Jalopnik To Dox Commenter, Delete Posts, Meets The Streisand Effect Instead

from the hi-honda dept

Criticism is part of life, of course, and I tend to believe that people show their true selves most transparently when they show how they deal with criticism. Unfortunately, we’ve covered entirely too many stories involving people and companies responding to online criticism poorly here at Techdirt. Typically, these unfortunate responses amount to trying to censor the criticism, but it can more dangerously involve the attempted silencing of journalism as well as threats of legal action against those making the critical comments.

Too many times, websites and web services cave to this sort of censorship. But not everyone. Gawker Media, about whom I could fill these pages with criticism, appears to be pushing back on once such attempt levied against its site Jalopnik. Apparently, car-maker Honda took a negative view of some comments made at the site, purportedly by a Honda employee. For some reason, Honda decided that this distinction meant that it could not only silence the comments, but that it should receive help from the site in outing the commenter. The whole thing starts off, as seems so often the case, with some rather mild criticism in the form of a comment.

In December, a commenter calling him or herself HondAnonymous, posted a string of comments on these posts claiming to be a technician at Honda’s research and development facility. People on the Internet make claims like that all the time, but HondAnonymous seemed able to back them up with actual information about the development of the NSX and other cars. The most interesting bits were complaints about the NSX’s Continental tires (“they are garbage”) and how newer Honda engines have an issue “with the studs on the cat either backing out of the head or snapping altogether.”

Interesting, if not earth-shattering. A lot of it sounds like normal car development. The first one is a complaint we’ve seen in various early NSX tests, and the last is probably a recall waiting to happen. But earlier this month, Honda’s lawyers contacted us to say that information posted by HondAnonymous “is confidential information owned by Honda R&D Americas, Inc., and posts by that user of such confidential information breaches a contractual obligation of confidentiality owed to Honda R&D Americas, Inc.”

As Jalopnik notes, it wasn’t them that posted the information. Instead, it was a commenter within the open commenting system Gawker Media uses. Regardless, apparently Honda’s attorneys requested not only that all comments by the user be taken down immediately, but they also requested that the site turn over all identifying information about the user to them so that they could hunt down the leak. Think about this for just a moment and you’ll see the problem: Honda wants Jalopnik’s help in figuring out who this commenter is, while also demanding that the content be taken down because it violates a contractual confidentiality agreement. However, Jalopnik isn’t obligated in any way to help Honda, regardless of what private contracts may or may not have been violated.

In typical Gawker fashion, Jalopnik gleefully is posting about all this, Streisanding the issue back into the news when it might otherwise have died off quickly.

It’s pretty egregious for a corporation to try to bully a news organization into deep-sixing comments from its own readers. It’s far more egregious to threaten to subpoena us if we don’t dox one of those readers. The good news is we couldn’t dox HondAnonymous even if we somehow wanted to. He or she used an anonymous burner account, and we don’t track passwords, logins, or IP addresses for any of our users. HondAnonymous’ posts will stay up.

To Honda, or any other automaker: If you would like us to delete the comments of our readers or expose their identities (which, again, we can’t do anyway) again, please let me know! I am more than happy to drag your intimidation tactics into the public eye for all your customers and prospective buyers to see. Govern yourselves accordingly.

So, in trying to silence and out a critic, Honda instead finds themselves the subject of reports about the attempted silencing of the critic, whose criticism is once more in the public light. Bang up job, lawyers!

Filed Under: anonymity, comments, contracts, doxxing, jalopnik, news sites, streisand effect
Companies: gawker, honda

Seattle Honda/Toyota Dealer Decides To Try To Sell Cars Like Tesla Does, Rather Than Trying To Shut Tesla Down

from the that's-one-step dept

Over the past few years, we’ve highlighted how frightened autodealers have absolutely freaked out about the way in which Tesla sells its cars. If you don’t know, rather than having a bunch of independent dealers, Tesla sells direct, where you mainly buy via its website. Rather than dealerships, Tesla has showrooms where you can go check out the cars. The pricing is clear and obvious and it’s much lower pressure. Dealers have tried a variety of tricks to actually outlaw Teslas from being sold in their states, even arguing that Tesla’s website is illegal. Thankfully, most states aren’t falling for this, and even the FTC has supported the Tesla way of selling cars.

Apparently, some dealers are finally realizing that if you can’t beat ’em by trying to make them disappear, perhaps you ought to compete. Via Jalopnik, we learn of a dealer in Seattle (who owns both a Honda and a Toyota dealership) who has decided to adopt what he thinks is the “Tesla model” for selling cars — single price, no haggling, no separate finance department whose there to screw you over on the deal terms, and transparency about the loan rates.

What’s more, the dealerships have no F&I managers. Salespeople handle the loans. Learning to do that isn’t easy, so Miller and Mohammadi have hired contractors to do some paperwork and walk the salespeople through the process.

Prices are fixed, and so are interest rates. Customers who need financing can refer to a chart on the wall, tracing their finger from their credit score to the amount of the loan.

Of course, the story also notes that this shift hasn’t been easy. Most of the existing sales staff left as they couldn’t deal with this setup, and sales at the dealership dropped significantly — though they’ve since rebounded. And, of course, there have been other dealers in the past that have adopted “one price/no haggling” setups, but studies have shown that many customers don’t trust such deals, assuming that the “one price” is likely to be higher than they could get by negotiating, even if they don’t like haggling.

While I think it’s a smart move to try to compete, rather than ban, innovative competitors like Tesla, it feels a little bit like a cargo cult copying situation, where the focus is on copying the obvious superficial aspects of what Tesla is doing, but not the deeper hidden reasons. In Tesla’s case, it’s a combination of factors that are selling those cars, including the cool factor, the environmental factor and the overall prestige of the car. Hondas and Toyotas, while recognized as reliable, don’t have all of those factors. Plus, since the Tesla sales model is for all Teslas, there is no other option, so no one feels that the single price offering is a rip off. That’s not the case when a single dealer does something.

So I think it’s good that this dealer is looking for a better model, but it’s going to involve a lot of experiments and innovating, beyond just copying some of the superficial aspects of what Tesla does.

Filed Under: auto dealers, car dealers, cargo cult, competition, dealers, haggling, innovation, sales, superficial
Companies: honda, tesla, toyota

DailyDirt: Personal Mobility Solutions That Solve Non-Problems Look Cool

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Segway never really lived up to its hype, but it does serve a practical purpose as a means of transportation — and it’s a bit more convenient than a bike in some ways. (I haven’t been a fan of larger versions of the Segway (GM’s PUMA) because some things just don’t scale well. However, I’m not against tinkering with new transportation solutions to try to come up with cool new ways to get around.) If you like transportation gadgets, here are just a few cool-looking projects that offer some extreme maneuverability.

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bike, omnidirectional, personal mobility, puma, ryno, segway, spherical drive system, transportation, uni-cub, unicycle
Companies: gm, honda

DailyDirt: Weird Airplane Designs

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Airplane designs have evolved quite a bit over the years. Some new planes might as well be alien spacecraft compared to the designs most people recognize. Outside of the super secret stealth aircraft, though, there are some interesting planes that are more fuel efficient and have strikingly different silhouettes. Here are just a few examples.

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: airplane, aviation, engine design, fuel efficient, hondajet, jets
Companies: honda

DailyDirt: More Walking Robots

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Honda’s ASIMO and other walking robots don’t really look like much of match for catching up with people running away from them. But like zombies, robots never get tired and can just keep walking slowly towards you (as long as their batteries last, that is). Here are just a few examples of some robots that are starting to walk a bit more like us.

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: asimo, atlas, biomimicry, bipedal, gait, humanoid, locomotion, mabel, robots, terminator, walking
Companies: boston dynamics, darpa, honda, humanoid robotics institute

DailyDirt: Ads Are Content

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

One of the recurring themes around here is that advertising should be engaging and entertaining, not annoying. Every year, there are excellent examples of this truism — during the halftime of the Superbowl. Some ads are easily forgotten, but some are remembered for decades (and even associated with the products they were trying to promote). Here are just a few more reminders, just in case you’re busy this coming Sunday.

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: 1984, ads, chronicle, ferris bueller
Companies: apple, honda

Honda Sued For Trademark Infringement For Suggesting It Wants To Save The Earth

from the okay,-don't-save-the-earth dept

Be careful suggesting that you want to “save the earth.” Automaker Honda just did that in an ad with a guy wearing a “save the earth” t-shirt, and for doing so, it got slapped with a trademark infringement lawsuit from the Save the Earth Foundation, which apparently has a trademark on that phrase (and has had it since 1972). The foundation claims that the ad was implying endorsement by the foundation. I wonder if morons in a hurry have any interest in saving the earth.

Filed Under: advertising, cars, save the earth, t-shirts, trademark
Companies: honda, save the earth foundation