Some time spent with the Ultraviolette X-47 got me thinking about privacy and freedom in their most basic sense and how we might soon lose what little is left. Think about your current life and how much you’ve already willingly or unknowingly sacrificed. Your smartphone and the multiple apps on it know your location at all times, and they keep an accurate log of where you have been unless you’ve specifically turned that feature off. Your payment apps create a digital footprint of what you spend on and where you do it. Your social media presence captures an even more accurate portrait of what you like and dislike and, more or less, who you are as a person. All of this is data you do not control and, instead, you live with the hope that it will be respected and protected – even though deep down, you know that it mostly isn’t. There used to be a time, not so long ago, when a motorcycle was a tool of freedom. It was one of the few things that could take you as far as you wanted to go and let you keep that journey entirely to yourself if you so wished. One of the big downsides of EVs is that they do not yet offer that same unbridled freedom – a reliable public charging network that matches the existing fuel station network is still a distant dream. However, the sweeping shift to connected vehicles is my real concern. All new EVs, and a growing number of ICE vehicles, are now eSIM-enabled and constantly harvesting incredible amounts of data. This includes not only location and speed, but also things like accelerator opening, brake pressure, lean angles and individual wheel speeds. Your every move, even if you accidentally lift the front or