Researchers have spilled tons of ink about connected cars and the dangers associated with them. Still, many people don’t know that their daily drivers are sending personal information to insurers and advertisers alike. Even those who do know often choose to take their chances—but not security professional Arkadiy Tetelman. He recently took all the data senders out of his 2024 Toyota RAV4, and he published the process so others know how to unplug, too. Tetelman prefaced his walkthrough with a series of warnings. He pointed to past instances like Tesla employees sharing footage of naked customers in 2023, as well as a more recent vulnerability in Subarus that allowed anyone to remotely unlock cars while accessing real-time and historical GPS location. Paranoia is pretty well justified when the track record looks like that. I won’t retell Tetelman’s blog blow-for-blow, but the gist is this: It’s an involved process, though that shouldn’t stop you. He lays out all of the necessary tools required to do the job on a RAV4 like his, and in 13 steps, he explains how to remove the data communication model. He also instructs folks on how to remove the Toyota’s GPS antenna in five steps. Again, you need a few hours to complete all this, but you don’t have to be a mechanic of any kind. With both the DCM and GPS antenna removed, Tetelman’s crossover no longer sends location or telemetry data to third parties. It loses connected features like over-the-air updates and SOS calling—a safety feature that he willingly disabled—but that’s mostly it. Confirming that it worked is pretty easy, since all you have to do is check that the car has no internet connection while ensuring that the SOS calling light is off. You should still be able to make and receive phone