On-Star, a new method for abusers to control their victims

[wellstone dem]

I work with domestic violence victims. A client recently told me that she had left her abuser and hid from him, he tracked her down using the On-Star service which was in the car she took.

Sigh, another thing to warn my clients about.

[Mythsaje]

1. On-Star and such

has ALWAYS given me the creeps. I won't own a vehicle with it.

[Pepperbelly]

Hiya, friend ...

I wouldn't have that stuff anyway. Seems pretty Big Brotherish at the very least.

Please warn them. Controllers need to lose control as quickly as possible. That can be controlled, of course.

[Montauk6]

2. Y'know, I hear the frantic-mom radio ads, and I'm still not sure what this

On-Star thing is all about.

[Clark2008]

3. Me either.

I figure if I have the ability to talk to a police dispatcher on On-Star, I can just as well use my cell phone - which isn't tracking me (until I use it) like On-Star is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Cell phones track

If you have your phone "on" it is tracking you, even if you aren't "using" it to talk. The phone switches from cell to cell to be able to receive calls, so the system knows which cell to relay calls to, so the system has to track you. But you probably know this already.

[Clark2008]

17. Yes... but, if I needed to hide, I would turn a cell phone off.

Can you turn off an On-Star?

[Hello_Kitty]

4. I don't know much about On-Star but

How was he able to use it? Do the dispatchers give out locations or did he have some type of device to do it? Can you track someone online with it? :scared:

[wellstone dem]

5. On-star can track your vehicle

they bill the feature as being able to track your car if stolen.

In this case, the abuser apparently called on-star and probably said the vehicle was stolen, so they told him where it was.

[Hello_Kitty]

8. Gotcha

They should only be able to give that information out if a car theft has been reported to the police, and then only to the police IMO.

Domestic abuse issues aside, it's dangerous because people who have had their cars stolen might try to go confront the theives themselves. Not a good idea.

[LeftyMom]

6. The govt can use it to listen in to conversations too

by activating them remotely and recording in-car conversation. Although the courts ruled against the practice in the ninth circuit, there's nothing stopping them anyplace else.

I won't buy a car with it.

[Autumn Colors]

11. Yeah

I always wondered about that. I would be afraid someone was listening to me in the car. The thought of it freaks me out and I won't buy a car with that in it.

[China_cat]

7. You better warn them about the police then.

Mine found me by filing a missing person report. The cops never bothered to check to see if there was a reason I was missing. They found me, told him...happy to help, mate. He worked me over, terrorized the whole neighborhood where I was before he finally got to me and then stole my son who I didn't get to see again for 24 years.

So yeah, make sure they know that the people they should count on to help them won't.

[wellstone dem]

9. That's terrible

I do warn my clients about the missing persons report, and the risk of some police officer discounting the violence. Most around here however, do check to see if the woman is protecting herself from violence.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. That's good that they are doing that now

In the past it did seem as though the cops were the abusers' closest allies.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Lots of training has changed that equiation, at least in major

cities... these days if you assault somebody in a DV, yuo are gonna go to jail, even if the person you assaulted will not press charges

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Dear God, what a nightmare.

I am so sorry.

I hope you are able to see your son often today.

[China_cat]

23. Yes, thank you.

In fact, he and his oldest son lived here with us for 4 years while he got back on his feet after a nasty divorce.

[GoneOffShore]

10. From EFF

A federal appeals court rules that a Las Vegas judge erred when he ordered a company to help the FBI eavesdrop on conversations in a suspect's vehicle using the car's "OnStar" cellphone audio.

http://www.eff.org/minilinks/archives/week_2005_07_17.php#003820


http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Nov-19-Wed-2003/news/22620787.html

If you want to know more about the surveillance capability of "OnStar" go here -
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/surveillancemonitor.html

[oscar111]

13. RUSH Limbaugh sponsor, last i read at the sponsor

page, at the site.. was it

TAKE BACK THE MEDIA.COM?
or MEDIAWHORES?

about two yrs ago.
{to say this clearly.. onstar or amstar is/was a Rush sponsor. I thought it was amstar. For sure, it is the car emergency link}

then, a few months later, back then, i looked again and the page had vanished. Also had a new site forum, which was extremely clunky.. my try at using the forum to find outwhat had happened to the rush page, was ineffective. Glitch city.

anyone know what happened?

any other web site with rush sponsors?

[newswolf56]

15. Thank you for posting this. It confirms all the paranoia...

I've had about OnStar since I first read of it. Indeed when I expressed precisely this possibility to a close friend -- an otherwise very intelligent and perceptive woman, an avowed feminist (who is nevertheless always entirely too PollyAnna-enthusiastic about new technology) -- she dismissed my concerns as absurd. Now however I'll send her this link.

The worst danger in OnStar is that it allows a tyrannical government to monitor our whereabouts 24/7 -- a grave threat to liberty at any time but especially under the Bush/Christofascist Cabal now in power. (In this context, I have heard -- but do not know for a fact -- that some states are already considering legislation to make OnStar mandatory in all vehicles.)

[undergroundpanther]

18. We lost our freedom

Already stores,street corners,stoplights watch us..RIFD technology and a form of digital angel can be inserted with a routine injection.Satellites can see us in our homes they see with infrared and with optics that can read a newspaper from space.These satellites can project interactive holograms and will soon be able to shoot lasers upon any target these pigs want..
On star's"issues" is just some of the results of the warnings"paranoids" have been shouting for years coming home to roost people..We lost our freedom the day we let experts corporations and"0fficials" tell us who we are, what we must be and do, how we must live and this occurred when we decided to take the path of domesticated obedience over the path of self sufficient communities with leaderless forms of cooperation and working it out together in mutual agreements and destroying or exiling sociopath people who wanted domination and to act like kings and get away with abusing people.We decided to play make believe and doubt what is right in front of us and we cajole those who ask questions most people are scared to ask..These"paraniods are canaries in the coal mine folks....Look in reality the people that run corporations and state are ruthless,heartless manipulating cruel winner take all sociopaths with the kind of charisma and charm and astute observation of our minds and behavior,so they need not give a shit what we think of them ,they can just tell a lie,make up a fake situation, play a game and hook us by what we want to hear and sometimes by what we do not want to hear.The truth of it all is to me is horrible and has been going on for a very long time,the game has had small variations on the theme but it is all about domination,winning, these pigs want control domination,above all else.They want to OWN and control everything use it, abuse everything at their whim for their own well being,power trips, and entertainment.They get off on it..They are the winners..Until someone figures out a way to stop and beat them..permanantly.Then we have a hiccup in the course of"empires".
But strangely for us it stays the same convert or die, do as you are told,do your job,take what you are given, pay to exist,fit in be"normal", and don't ask questions and do not try to look at the men behind the curtains.Unless you are willing to sell your own integrity for a taste of power....

[wli]

19. sociopaths vs. normals instead of corporatists vs. workers

Yes, that's pretty much the size of it.

[one_true_leroy]

29. ball-peen hammer'll solve that problem!

(mandatory on-star, that is :evilgrin: )

[applegrove]

20. Scary - but victims too can use technology. Like cameras and cell phones

with cameras. Someone needs to put "disingage onstar" on the list of things to do when you are leaving an abusive situation.

[Montauk6]

22. In related news...Doctor's Office Faxes Woman's Records To Stranger

http://tinyurl.com/cpj64

A local woman's medical records were faxed to a stranger by her doctor's office, Rescue 4 reported.

The person who received the records notified and handed the documents over to Rescue 4, who contacted the woman by phone.

The woman, who asked to go only by the name Cathy, told Rescue 4 she was shocked that the paperwork containing her Social Security number, date of birth and other personal information ended up in the hands of a stranger.

"You must be kidding. You have in possession my medical records? This is outrageous. I'm petrified that my records are available to the public," Cathy said.

Cathy's doctor's office had apparently intended to fax the records to her lawyer's office, but the person who was sending the information punched in the wrong numbers on the fax machine, Rescue 4 reported.

Cathy was fortunate that the person who received the records turned them over immediately.

"I would like to thank whoever got my medical records. I appreciate your good deed and may God bless you," Cathy said.

The woman's lawyer was not in his office on Friday, but he told Rescue 4 by phone that if he had known the records were out there, he would have seen to it that they were destroyed.

Cathy's doctor apologized for the mistake and said that it's the first time information has been wrongly distributed at that office.

[TrogL]

31. A bank once faxed me pages and pages of customer information

It took me over a day to get them to stop. Somebody programmed my phone number into a speed-dialer.

[lynch03]

24. those commercials are so freaking HORRIBLE

FUCK!

[oscar111]

25. Horrible commercials, right. I tune away at the first words on tv ads for

onstar. They are awful.

fits in with their being

Limbaugh sponsors.

Some freeper must own the company.

[ElectroPrincess]

26. You got that right ...

Cheesy commercial beyond all else.

How 'bout new slogan?

"You're welcome Sir!
And please know that we're ON STAR.
We're always here when you need us to hunt down your thankless bitch." :puke:

Hum-mm ... not appealing but much less cheesy, aye? :P

[Swamp Rat]

27. LOL!

[jmowreader]

30. OnStar belongs to General Motors

who intends to make OnStar standard in all its vehicles by 2007.

Which means the only people driving GM vehicles by 2007 will be Republicans.

[NYCGirl]

32. They also advertise on Air America. NT

[DemBones DemBones]

28. This thread needs

a good, swift :kick: to stay on page one!

:kick: for good measure