Photo of the deactivated GPS trackers…

[Papa D]

If you’re smart, you’ll pull out the “Big Brother” gps tracker which hopefully you didn’t pay for. Mine wanted $995 for this Apex Protection gps. We declined all charges related with it. Now it’s been fully yanked off our car and wish the others do the same and post photos of it out of your vehicles.

So here’s mine to begin…

The circled white plastic is the factory OBDIl jack that they high jacked to power mine with. I pulled their piece of garbage out to make room for the factory plug to set where it’s supposed to be.

 

[wlong01]

Why was it in the vehicle to begin with?

 

[cz5gt]

Usually car sales add this crap for new and used vehicles. add 800-900$ bogus fee theft protection, whatever... in the sale price. Some people dont even notice it.

 

[Papa D]

Apparently there’s several reasons for this. Most simply, inventory of cars on a dealership’s lot. Allows quick, pinpoint location of whereabouts. Secondary, it’s then sold to gullible buyers as a theft recovery system. The problem is that these gadgets are so obvious where they are hidden, it’s laughable! Do the installers really think thieves are that stupid??? And the third reason is that lien holders love them to know where to locate their collateral for repossession processes. AND then there’s the most nefarious reason of ALL! Your data is collected and is then sold to the highest bidder. I refuse to trust anyone with my data.

I am pissed about how they altered my car from being factory. The black obdi plug is their’s and they took the white factory one off its mount so they could plug in the tracker into it. My car arrived on the truck as we negotiated the OTD price when we declined the fees for the tracker and told deaf ears we didn’t want it installed. They did it anyway! That ticks me off. So be ware if you’re not aware about these sneaky gadgets. Search YouTube for them on how to find it and take it off.

 

[jadmt]

None on my 2023

 

[Papa D]

That’s a super clear photo of the factory plug! Just to make sure there’s nothing installed, they can cut into wire harness too. Look for strange wires and wire ties that don’t belong under the dash. Hopefully you were lucky and nothing was installed.

Your picture will be helpful for anyone who wants to uninstall theirs. The black plug will be in that spot, there’s clips on the skinny ends that holds it in place. Take a flathead and press on the end to release it from the mounting. Once it’s out, unplug it from the white, factory obdi plug. Gently press the white plug back in its proper place. It shouldn’t need any forcing, upon proper alignment, it slips easily into place.

 

[jadmt]

That’s a super clear photo of the factory plug! Just to make sure there’s nothing installed, they can cut into wire harness too. Look for strange wires and wire ties that don’t belong under the dash. Hopefully you were lucky and nothing was installed.


Your picture will be helpful for anyone who wants to uninstall theirs. The black plug will be in that spot, there’s clips on the skinny ends that holds it in place. Take a flathead and press on the end to release it from the mounting. Once it’s out, unplug it from the white, factory obdi plug. Gently press the white plug back in its proper place. It shouldn’t need any forcing, upon proper alignment, it slips easily into place.

Nothing is installed.

 

[Cooper1]

Does the Mazda phone App need it to locate your car?

 

[jadmt]

Does the Mazda phone App need it to locate your car?

No. My app worked until it expired last month. The one the op posted is dealer added. Not that the factory set up can’t do the same thing. It can tell where your car is parked so I am sure it could track your driving habits.

 

[Cooper1]

Thanks.

 

[Papa D]

Can anyone explain how the MyMazda app is tracking my car? Is there any way to deactivate this?

 

[jadmt]

Can anyone explain how the MyMazda app is tracking my car? Is there any way to deactivate this?

it is covered in your owners manual. you can disable some stuff but not everything.

 

[N7turbo]

Can anyone explain how the MyMazda app is tracking my car? Is there any way to deactivate this?

The app gets the car's location via GPS and communicates over the cell towers to the car's connected services or telemetry unit (sorry, I don't know actual term).

This unit also collects driving data.

Like jadmt said, you can call to opt out of the 2nd level of data collection, and you can opt out of sharing data with third parties, but you cannot opt out of the base data collection which is enabled on all cars.

 

[Mulligan]

You can find some discussions about this (e.g., on Reddit) by googling "Permanently Disabling Telematic Control Unit".

 

[BoomerZoomr]

MyMazda app has updated terms that I am not going to try and read/understand… so I am locked out.

 

[RedBaron]

You have to call in to Mazda customer service to get all the data collection FULLY disabled. As far as I've found there's no other alternative. I need to do this myself, but have not yet mustered the will ...

 

[N7turbo]

You have to call in to Mazda customer service to get all the data collection FULLY disabled.

Sadly, you cannot opt out of the car collecting a base level of information.

 

[Papa D]

It’s taken me a while to realize the benefits of the “MyMazda” app on my iPhone. I still get creeped out thinking about who is looking at my location. But I’m 65 yo and old school beliefs. At least the after market tracker has been smashed into pieces and gone.

 

[SparkYellow]

Sorry that they did this! I'd be so pissed too. A long time ago I accepted a set of wheel lock on a new car but that was the max I can take.