[fdjizm]

Hello all, feeling a bit creeped out at the moment, but maybe I am getting ahead of myself.
I was hesitant to enable ford pass after reading all the data collection but I figured it would be cool to take advantage of all the features.
My mind was quickly changed after this very interesting event!

I had set up ford pass on 10/1 went through the options ticked boxes here and there thought it was pretty cool to locate my car, set security notifications when the doors opened start it etc.. etc.. I specifically did not want to record journeys, I find it a bit much (yep mini-tin foil hat here).

So on to the weirdness, I made an appointment with a dealer for an oil change and 24 hours before that appointment at 7:13am it looks like journeys just started to appear.
I didn't check till 11/2 when I saw every drive I made from 10/29 to 11/2 was right there in the app under my journeys ALL WHILE the journey setting remained off.

Did Ford or the dealer enable journeys prior to the appointment to gather some data on the car?

I just don't see how journeys decided to start recording 24 hrs before a dealer appointment with the option being off.

Screenshots attached, I am about to start pulling fuses, WTF!?

 

[anotherfusion]

Welp I'm about to go check mine because I have mine off too......

 

[Vidmo]

I'm seeing the same thing as you. Journeys is off (always has been)

• If I go into My Journeys "This week" (the default screen) nothing shows up.
• If I go into My Journeys "Latest Monthly Summary" nothing shows up, no data.
• If I go into My Journeys "This week" and then switch to "Last week" it's all there being recorded!

Ford has some explaining to do! I went back to see how far it goes and it looks like this started on Oct 24th, but then stopped on Nov 6th.

 

[fdjizm]

Wow, that's shady as hell!!! WTF
I hate the be the tin foil hat dude, but turning on an option basically forcing the logging anyway while the end user disabled it in the app?
Come on now, why even give us the option to disable something that you're going to "ninja enable" at your whim? I am betting most people don't go back into the journeys screen because they shut it off and think there will be nothing there.

FYI I removed the Telematics unit from the car this weekend because of this.
The car now has no cellular modem, and I performed a master reset so the "car" does not consent to any data uploading.
No CEL's or limited functionality at all with the unit out.

 

[DarkArkAngel]

Wow, that's shady as hell!!! WTF
I hate the be the tin foil hat dude, but turning on an option basically forcing the logging anyway while the end user disabled it in the app?
Come on now, why even give us the option to disable something that you're going to "ninja enable" at your whim? I am betting most people don't go back into the journeys screen because they shut it off and think there will be nothing there.

FYI I removed the Telematics unit from the car this weekend because of this.
The car now has no cellular modem, and I performed a master reset so the "car" does not consent to any data uploading.
No CEL's or limited functionality at all with the unit out.

I seriously doubt there is some conspiracy here. It's unneeded. I guarantee Ford has the capability to always track the vehicle, and that is part of some agreement somewhere when you buy the car. They don't need to enable my journeys or something dumb like that.

I would sooner blame it on incompetent software goons. The same guys who could make my car start from across the continent but couldn't give me remote access to my climate controls too. 🙄

 

[fdjizm]

I seriously doubt there is some conspiracy here. It's unneeded. I guarantee Ford has the capability to always track the vehicle, and that is part of some agreement somewhere when you buy the car. They don't need to enable my journeys or something dumb like that.

I would sooner blame it on incompetent software goons. The same guys who could make my car start from across the continent but couldn't give me remote access to my climate controls too. 🙄

I am not saying there is a conspiracy, I know Ford sells our data to insurance companies and all that.
I'm saying it's creepy and intrusive to force enable a background feature remotely that a user had disabled.

Yes Ford can track the car if you agree to the terms and leave the telematics unit in. Mine is currently out, my car can't contact the internet it's physically impossible.
And yes I did agree to the terms when I signed up for Ford Pass which was fine and not creepy at all until a feature I specifically had off was enabled a day before a dealer appointment.
They did not turn enable the "my journeys" option as it's still off, but something was enabled that started logging trips before I went to the dealer it's all there on the app.
I just happened to see it because the ford pass app queries the car for trip data when you go tinto the my journey screen.

That doesn't raise any "huh, that's weird" flags for you?

 

[DarkArkAngel]

I am not saying there is a conspiracy, I know Ford sells our data to insurance companies and all that.
I'm saying it's creepy and intrusive to force enable a background feature remotely that a user had disabled.

Yes Ford can track the car if you agree to the terms and leave the telematics unit in. Mine is currently out, my car can't contact the internet it's physically impossible.
And yes I did agree to the terms when I signed up for Ford Pass which was fine and not creepy at all until a feature I specifically had off was enabled a day before a dealer appointment.
They did not turn enable the "my journeys" option as it's still off, but something was enabled that started logging trips before I went to the dealer it's all there on the app.
I just happened to see it because the ford pass app queries the car for trip data when you go tinto the my journey screen.

That doesn't raise any "huh, that's weird" flags for you?

Knowing how badly software is done by most OEM car companies? No, no red flags.

It's been 10 years and most of them still can't make an infotainment system worth a crap. I seriously doubt the realm of mobile app development would be spared the organizational incompetence.

 

[fdjizm]

Knowing how badly software is done by most OEM car companies? No, no red flags.

It's been 10 years and most of them still can't make an infotainment system worth a crap. I seriously doubt the realm of mobile app development would be spared the organizational incompetence.

So you're saying it's a software glitch?

 

[DarkArkAngel]

So you're saying it's a software glitch?

Could be. Occam's Razor applies here. Software glitch from incompetent software devs seems more likely than systematic conspiracy by Ford to collect data through a feature they don't need on to collect data for.

 

[fdjizm]

Could be. Occam's Razor applies here. Software glitch from incompetent software devs seems more likely than systematic conspiracy by Ford to collect data through a feature they don't need on to collect data for.

So the app that was working for a month without logging any trips, just caught a glitch a day before a dealer appointment. I'll have to respectfully disagree, but it's always good to have other points of view thank you! 😀

 

[anotherfusion]

Mine also shows logged trips and I didn't have mine enabled either. Started about a month ago or so. I don't know the exact date as I don't have my phone with me at work, but it was logging my trips last week as well. Not this week however. Not fully detailed trips either. Just a point A to point B with how long it took and my average speed.

 

[fdjizm]

Interesting. Mine start on 10/29 and stopped on 11/2, weird that it would stop a few days later.

 

[DaMiFo]

I see through the app and update notes that Ford seems to be pushing Journeys a lot. As DarkArkAngel, I think it's just poor software quality on Ford / Ford's app developer's part.

Did you try blocking location access from the app on your phone? I wouldn't be surprised if it's the app itself doing the tracking whenever it see's it's conencted to your car via bluetooth.

 

[fdjizm]

I see through the app and update notes that Ford seems to be pushing Journeys a lot. As DarkArkAngel, I think it's just poor software quality on Ford / Ford's app developer's part.

Did you try blocking location access from the app on your phone? I wouldn't be surprised if it's the app itself doing the tracking whenever it see's it's conencted to your car via bluetooth.

I was using the app for it's full features at first but did disable journeys right out of the gate.
If I had blocked the location access I couldn't use the locate car feature, so yes it has access at the time.
I've since uninstalled the app, called ford to opt-out, performed a master reset on sync and removed the TCU from the car.

I am open to it being some kind of glitch, but the timing was just too perfect with the dealer appointment the next day.
And if it is a glitch, why did it stop logging two days later? That's not a question you can answer more of a statement of the timing, and other people seeing the same thing with it logging trips and then stopping while having the option disabled. eh, not a HUGE deal just made me do a double take, then reading throuigh the agreements. (like I did not before because ya know why read? lol)

 

[WoodmanMN]

We got a notice that we were on a "journey" this saturday while driving to the grocery store in my daughter's 2009 Mazda 3. Not sure why that'd show up in the MyFordPass app, but it did.