[AndrewAZ]

Originally Posted by Kruz

Aluminum foil over the sharkfin. Repeat for your head to prevent big brotha from scanning your thoughts.

That actually helps amplify the signals...

[renegade]

I don't blame the o.p. for wanting to gain this info - the more you know about your vehicle the better

[McLuVan]

take the DVD out

[m.rk77]

ya I guess that should deactivate the nav system. But I still wonder if I can disconnect the antennas...

Originally Posted by McLuVan

take the DVD out

[SantaMonica335i]

Screwdriver>Sharkfin=Problem solved

Seriously though noone cares if you pick flowers for your grirfriend off the roadside instead of buying them at the store.
I think the better question is how you need to dispose of the bodies.

[tintivilus]

Originally Posted by m.rk77

ya I guess that should deactivate the nav system. But I still wonder if I can disconnect the antennas...

I'm fairly certain de-activating nav won't deactivate assist. Why the concern about GPS?

[e90driver]

This thread is funny. No one in the government cares about what you do and no one is tracking you. It would be a waste to have paid for navi just to disconnect it because you are having neurotic feelings about someone tracking you. If you are that concerned, purchase an old vehicle with no phone or navi installed.

Besides, if they are tracking you and all of a sudden they see that the signal is disconnected- the might wonder what is up and send someone to physically follow you around, forever....

[rdsport323]

i think you should remove your license plate and scratch off your VIN number from the windshield, and side of the door while you are at it...

just to be super safe

[m.rk77]

took care of vin first week I got the car. I also have a special system which can cover my licensplates in .14 of a second. I use this when I drive through the automatic license plate readers: example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:100_5413.JPG

European Law enforcement is a little different then in the USA. Here we are all criminals until proven innocent in the USA you are innocent until proven guilty. hat is why here in europe we are tracked on all roads and information is stored for years...

http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/contractors/

Originally Posted by rdsport323

i think you should remove your license plate and scratch off your VIN number from the windshield, and side of the door while you are at it...

just to be super safe

[Johndong888]

If you seriously want to evade transmitting information of any type, why don't you just get another beater car instead of all this you're doing. Like other have said, there is other the BMW Assist that you should be worried about, that is if you have it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Navi transmit any information but your radio frequency on the other hand...

[rob72]

I cannot believe the misinformation being spread here.

The BMW navigation does NOT, and let me repeat that DOES NOT have a GSM phone integrated unless you have BMW Assist, which is extra and not available everywhere.

The traffic information does NOT come from GSM, it comes from certain radio stations that send out encoded traffic information called TMC. The car has an extra radio antenna that locks into these radio stations, so you can still listen to other stations at the same time and get traffic information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Message_Channel

[rrandyy]

Originally Posted by rob72

I cannot believe the misinformation being spread here.
...
The car has an extra radio antenna that locks into these radio stations, so you can still listen to other stations at the same time and get traffic information.

It uses the same radio antenna, but has an additional receiver (or tuner, if you prefer). This means you cant just disconnect the antenna...

[rob72]

Originally Posted by rrandyy

It uses the same radio antenna, but has an additional receiver (or tuner, if you prefer). This means you cant just disconnect the antenna...

Right I should have said tuner, not antenna.

[m.rk77]

Originally Posted by rob72

Right I should have said tuner, not antenna.

This just hit the news wires last week in Switzerland and it is creating a lot of concerns about privacy. This system will read how m any cell phones are traveling on certain roads and average speeds and the information will be shared with GPS providers:

http://www.20min.ch/digital/webpage/story/18950467


here is the Babelfish.yahoo.com translation (its an auto translation so try to understand):


Their data are worth cash money! However not for it, but for enterprises, which carry on with it trade. The newest example is the Swisscom, which supplies with to the Navi manufacturer TomTom transaction data of Mobiltelefonierern.

In Holland läufts already: TomTom hp Traffic on the One XL uses data of portable radio participants.
The manufacturers from navigation equipment are in the war. Since Nokia bought the manufacturer Navteq and the newer mobile phones for localization to have inserted, the classical navigation equipment shortly after its rapid arising already again the disappearance in sinking threatens GPS chips. In order to maintain ground in the market that ever more resembling Navi devices, leads itself the way across the quality of the supplied map material - and extended features as current traffic jam informations.

With it market leader is TomTom completely in front. It locked a contract now with the Swisscom, in order to evaluate the data of Swiss Handybenutzer. Thereby one conveys how quickly and in which direction in cars mobile phones present move. The data, which Swisscom supplies, are made anonymous. Thus TomTom does not know that Mr. Müller straight drives on a3, but only that a mobile phone moves along the motorway – or not.

Data protection-legally perfectly

“The system evaluates on the basis the local conditions whether mobile phones on a motorway or a canton road are, say” Carsten Roetz of the medium department of the Swisscom opposite 20minuten.ch. The clevere software can even differentiate owing to probability calculations whether a mobile phone is in the course or explains on the parallel running motorway, Roetz further.

Data protection-legally the evaluation of these information is unproblematic: “We must know, where a mobile phone is, otherwise could not calls or SMS not be through-placed.” Since the data of impersonal nature are, the telecommunications enterprise does not have to ask the owners of telephone for permission: “There only made one anonymous and no personal data in the play are, require this procedure of no agreement by the customers.

Daniel Menna, speaker of the Swiss federal commisioner for data protection confirms: “Is data protection legal this procedure not relevantly, there no person data to be transported.” It could reconstruct however, if owners of mobile telephone have a bad feeling, if with their data one acts. “Perhaps a little sharpens consciousness that one goes to Menna no longer unobserved through the world”, says.

Starting from center year in Switzerland

Data protection or ago: TomTom feeds additionally to the data information from traffic departments and road operators already-placed by Swisscom into its pilot signalling system. With “High definition Traffic” (HDT) wants to supply the Navi manufacturer more exact motoring information and to offer and by means of the Handy data of back-up rapidly to recognize be able more precise data to the travel duration –.

Profit from it can however not all customers: Differently than with conventional navigation equipment the HDT information is spread not over the radio, but according to Swisscom likewise over the portable radio net. Only the newest series of devices is able to call the Handy supported traffic information up. When the offer becomes available, is not clear yet. The service is to however presumably start in the second half-year 2008 in Switzerland.

[tintivilus]

That technology has been kicking around for a while now; I'm glad it's finally becoming commercially available.

These systems don't read your cell phone's GPS, they just count how often your phone switches cells. Since major highways have an unusually high concentration of cells (to handle high user concentration) you can get statistically aggregate traffic speed with remarkable resolution.

Please remember, though, that this has absolutely nothing to do with the telematics systems (or GPS, or FM Radio...) in your vehicle: cellular network operators provide this data to companies that generate the data streams for your navigation, whether you receive them via FM, GPRS, or satellite.

Rob -- thinks for the link on TMC; I was wondering how the system worked in other markets.

[Lassaxi]

I'm confused here. You're concerned about an article about how Swisscom and Tom Tom provide traffic information? Why does this have anything to do with your BMW GPS? BMW doesn't use the same system as Tom Tom and Swisscom use. Different manufacturers use different systems- for instance, Acura uses the XM satellite network for its traffic info, and not the FM network or the cell network.

BMW's system takes traffic data from the FM radio network (one way- from FM transmitter to your car) and the onboard computer overlays that data onto your GPS map. Your car communicates with the GPS satellites, but not the cell network or the FM broadcast network. When you are in a tunnel or otherwise don't have GPS coverage, the car uses dead reckoning to track your position- i.e., it knows you're on a particular road, and it knows how fast you're going, so it can calculate approximately where you should be. That works the same way in Europe as in the U.S.

And seriously, do you own a cell phone? If so, the GPS should be the least of your worries in terms of people tracking you.

[tintivilus]

Originally Posted by Lassaxi

I'm confused here. You're concerned about an article about how Swisscom and Tom Tom provide traffic information? Why does this have anything to do with your BMW GPS?

The article is about how they get the data to feed into RTTI services. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the GPS receiver in your car -- OP is using it as an example of cell-phone tracking. Even though it was machine-translated it's nice background on the inner workings of traffic flow informatics work in Europe.

It was kind of beside the point, really, but this thread is just going around in circles. OP keeps asking how to disable his GPS, then posting information about how he can be tracked by his cell phone. I still fail to see the connection, but it has generated some interesting (to me, at least) posts by people trying to demonstrate the problem

[Lassaxi]

Originally Posted by tintivilus

The article is about how they get the data to feed into RTTI services. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the GPS receiver in your car -- OP is using it as an example of cell-phone tracking. Even though it was machine-translated it's nice background on the inner workings of traffic flow informatics work in Europe.

It was kind of beside the point, really, but this thread is just going around in circles. OP keeps asking how to disable his GPS, then posting information about how he can be tracked by his cell phone. I still fail to see the connection, but it has generated some interesting (to me, at least) posts by people trying to demonstrate the problem

Ok, this is why I was confused as well. Thanks for clearing that up. For the record, I too fail to see the connection.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by m.rk77

The GPS system recives signals to the GPS satellites but also from Cell phone towers. This is why your GPS works in tunnels and bad weather, and in heavily wooded areas and cities with tall buildings.

Just to further clarify, the above (highlighted) is completely incorrect.

[Cosmo335i]

i dont think this guy know what he's talking about