Impressive

[GrumpyGranddad]

This morning when I started my Cali I had a warning message saying that ‘telephony was not available SOS calls only’ and a red light up by the bank of switches by the rear biew mirror. Had this on a Mercedes previously so ignored it as experience told me it would probably clear itself next time I started the van. Drove to the Farm Shop and sure enough all back to normal when restarting with a green light.
Drove to my allotment and received a call from Citygate VW asking if i’d noticed a warning light in my van, was everything OK and did I want to book it in.
I’m impressed with that.

 

[Calimili]

This morning when I started my Cali I had a warning message saying that ‘telephony was not available SOS calls only’ and a red light up by the bank of switches by the rear biew mirror. Had this on a Mercedes previously so ignored it as experience told me it would probably clear itself next time I started the van. Drove to the Farm Shop and sure enough all back to normal when restarting with a green light.
Drove to my allotment and received a call from Citygate VW asking if i’d noticed a warning light in my van, was everything OK and did I want to book it in.
I’m impressed with that.

Big brother watching your every move...

 

[Amarillo]

This morning when I started my Cali I had a warning message saying that ‘telephony was not available SOS calls only’ and a red light up by the bank of switches by the rear biew mirror. Had this on a Mercedes previously so ignored it as experience told me it would probably clear itself next time I started the van. Drove to the Farm Shop and sure enough all back to normal when restarting with a green light.
Drove to my allotment and received a call from Citygate VW asking if i’d noticed a warning light in my van, was everything OK and did I want to book it in.
I’m impressed with that.

You will now get a FPN for going to the farm shop for your breakfast milk and not the local corner shop.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

You will now get a FPN for going to the farm shop for your breakfast milk and not the local corner shop.

Haha
Farm shop 1 mile. Better quality chicken than Budgens.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Haha
Farm shop 1 mile. Better quality chicken than Budgens.

And before anybody asks why I didn’t walk or cycle, I had some heavy items to take to the allotment

 

[ger]

Seriously unimpressed with that! I hope they asked your permission to do such tracking, and explained what info they receive. Very BB.

 

[Hamish S]

Seriously unimpressed with that! I hope they asked your permission to do such tracking, and explained what info they receive. Very BB.

It'll all be in the small print that most of us don't read!!!! (including me......)

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Seriously unimpressed with that! I hope they asked your permission to do such tracking, and explained what info they receive. Very BB.

Really doesn’t worry me.
If you have an accident and your airbags deploy the vehicle automatically calls the emergency services and provides map coordinates. I think if you were unconcious and upside down in a ditch you’d probably be quite grateful?

 

[ger]

Calling emergency services when absolutely essential is very different to arbitrarily calling a dealer when a light comes on! Who else does it call?!

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

Calling emergency services when absolutely essential is very different to arbitrarily calling a dealer when a light comes on! Who else does it call?!

Fair enough ger, but it really doesn’t bother me. We are all tracked in our everyday lives via ANPR, CCTV, Debit/Credit Card usage, Mobile Phone location, Internet searches, Spending habits/patterns, WiFi that we attach to, the Covid App, etc, etc.
It seems that what happens when my Cali develops a fault is that an alert is triggered at my nominated dealership (Citygate) and they make contact. That’s good as far as i’m concerned, but each to their own view.

 

[GrahamB]

Calling emergency services when absolutely essential is very different to arbitrarily calling a dealer when a light comes on! Who else does it call?!

Ghostbusters?

 

[mikeelawson]

Calling emergency services when absolutely essential is very different to arbitrarily calling a dealer when a light comes on! Who else does it call?!

I work in Cyber security, remaining anonymous is a long distant dream these days. I went through a period of blocking everything for a while and have now given up. Going through the hassle of reading all of the terms and conditions and blocking cookies , was a complete hassle. Now I enable privacy to the highest level on social media (or don't use it) and accept the fact that big brother is watching me. Highly recommend the social dilemma on Netflix I think, so see what we are all up against. Regadds, Mike

 

[Wogga]

I had that twice over last week, no one rang me lol.

 

[Sunstoner]

When they work , these systems are very good.

My sister whilst driving her BMW was t-boned by a driver who without looking pulled out at a junction causing my sisters car to end up on its side.

In her dazed, injured condition she could hear a voice coming through the speaker system of the car. It turned out to be a member of the BMW team telling her that they were aware of the accident and the state of the car and that they had contacted the emergency services as well as some other instructions.

Which to me is bloody good.

We're being tracked enough on our phones anyway. Have you checked your google timeline for the past 10 years on your android phone? it'll tell you everywhere youve been and how long you stayed during that period. Its bonkers!

 

[GrannyJen]

I wish big brother would track where I've left my keys

I spend half my life looking for them

 

[Kernowboy]

Issue for me is more what is done with the info, rather than the info itself. I would find a ’sales’ call to book the van in for work just because of a temporary vehicle fault to be highly intrusive and unwarranted; I do not want that. But would find the summoning of emergency services post an accident to be extremely useful and fully justified; yes please. Big difference between the 2, down to how the info is utilised.

 

[Sunstoner]

Issue for me is more what is done with the info, rather than the info itself. I would find a ’sales’ call to book the van in for work just because of a temporary vehicle fault to be highly intrusive and unwarranted; I do not want that. But would find the summoning of emergency services post an accident to be extremely useful and fully justified; yes please. Big difference between the 2, down to how the info is utilised.

I couldnt agree more.

Im growing increasingly tired of seeing adverts everywhere I go. I dont want them at all but they're tied to everything I've recently looked at on any given device and they appear everywhere on my phone and in the various apps and other platforms.

As an example of how bad it is, during the setup of Microsoft Windows, its now a thing where you have to chose whether you want adverts tailored to your interests of not but you HAVE to have them one way or another. This didnt used to be the case. I mean cmon really???

Weirdly, I was taking part in a family online zoom quiz where one of the questions related to a famous artist and less than 24 hours later I started getting adverts for this artists work. Scarily, there wasnt an Alexa or Google speaker in sight. Purely what my phone listened too whilst sat next to me.

ooooo sorry... was going off on one then....id better let this go.....

but yes, sorry....its how 'our' info is being used. Its simply not right. We seemed to have succumbed to the gifts by way of apps and online services that are given to us in exchange for all of our info.

Theres a great program on this on Netflix called Social Dilemma. Really interesting and scary too!

 

[Swiss Cheese]

I wish big brother would track where I've left my keys

I spend half my life looking for them

I wish Big Brother would remind me what I was looking for when I arrive in a room in the house and wonder what it was I am there for...!!!

Back OT, I think it's really hard these days to keep on top of all the tracking and what-not. @mikeelawson has hit the nail squarely on the head.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

I agree with mikelawson.
In this world if you have any sort of online presence you can expect that >40,000 data points relating to you are held by various companies. Amazon, Google, FB, etc are some of the biggest harvesters of your data but almost all companies/organisations engage in data mining these days.
How to minimise/avoid it? Go completely off grid which for most of us is impossible.

Can’t be sure on this but I heard that one well known on line retailer analyses the phone/device being used to surf their site and adjusts the product prices accordingly?Would be an interesting experiment to conduct.

 

[Vagophile]

less than 24 hours later I started getting adverts for this artists work.

I had a mobile phone conversation with a friend, who told me that her grand daughter, who is a classical pianist, whilst waiting at Rome airport entertained passengers by playing the publicly available grand piano in the concourse.
Later, when I logged on to U tube, the first recommended item was a Russian classical pianist playing the publicly available grand piano at Rome airport. Truly big brother stuff.

 

[Nick.C]

Haha
Farm shop 1 mile. Better quality chicken than Budgens.

It’s ok for @Amarillo he has his own chickens, just don’t ask when he picked them up and how far he had to go to get them!!

 

[Lightning]

I agree with mikelawson.
In this world if you have any sort of online presence you can expect that >40,000 data points relating to you are held by various companies. Amazon, Google, FB, etc are some of the biggest harvesters of your data but almost all companies/organisations engage in data mining these days.
How to minimise/avoid it? Go completely off grid which for most of us is impossible.

Can’t be sure on this but I heard that one well known on line retailer analyses the phone/device being used to surf their site and adjusts the product prices accordingly?Would be an interesting experiment to conduct.

I noticed when searching for flights on a PC at work once, that the first time I visited a site the price was pretty low, but after multiple visits over a very short time frame the price increased significantly. It was like an algorithm decided that I was going to book the flight regardless of price as I had to.

 

[westfalia]

I noticed when searching for flights on a PC at work once, that the first time I visited a site the price was pretty low, but after multiple visits over a very short time frame the price increased significantly. It was like an algorithm decided that I was going to book the flight regardless of price as I had to.

Either clear your cookies or open up a private window. ( on a mac )

 

[westfalia]

I had a mobile phone conversation with a friend, who told me that her grand daughter, who is a classical pianist, whilst waiting at Rome airport entertained passengers by playing the publicly available grand piano in the concourse.
Later, when I logged on to U tube, the first recommended item was a Russian classical pianist playing the publicly available grand piano at Rome airport. Truly big brother stuff.

Similar things happen to me often

Had loads of lingerie adds and electric toy ones popping up
that time we were arranging going camping with Anne in summer.

 

[Meoncoast]

In her dazed, injured condition she could hear a voice coming through the speaker system of the car. It turned out to be a member of the BMW team telling her that they were aware of the accident and the state of the car and that they had contacted the emergency services as well as some other instructions.

I would have been worried it was the grim reaper telling me he was collecting me.