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Large data uploads?

SmoothJ

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I have been stuck on FPU 6.1 for over a month now, so I was trying to see what the hold up was. I reached out to someone on the forum, and I don't appear to have those newer updates in the queue as of 11/8 which I find odd. Regardless, I was snooping around to see if my truck has been trying to reach out, and noticed large data uploads over my wifi connection - some as high as 25 MB for the upload. This has me thinking, what is the truck uploading to FMC?

Ford F-150 Lightning Large data uploads? Screenshot 2023-11-16 at 10.30.28 AM
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TaxmanHog

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Performance logs ????
 
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SmoothJ

SmoothJ

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I dunno... its just odd though.
 

ctuan13

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I have been stuck on FPU 6.1 for over a month now, so I was trying to see what the hold up was. I reached out to someone on the forum, and I don't appear to have those newer updates in the queue as of 11/8 which I find odd. Regardless, I was snooping around to see if my truck has been trying to reach out, and noticed large data uploads over my wifi connection - some as high as 25 MB for the upload. This has me thinking, what is the truck uploading to FMC?

Screenshot 2023-11-16 at 10.30.28 AM.png
Well considering Ford and multiple other auto makers have been involved in court cases where they have been found to be uploading text messages, call logs and entire photo and video albums from connected phones to their telemetry center, I wouldn't be surprised if it's scraping whatever data it can. Could also be camera data from the bluecruise cameras (which are always active).

Theres a reason I personally have my TCU disconnected at all times ??
 

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Danface

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Well considering Ford and multiple other auto makers have been involved in court cases where they have been found to be uploading text messages, call logs and entire photo and video albums from connected phones to their telemetry center, I wouldn't be surprised if it's scraping whatever data it can. Could also be camera data from the bluecruise cameras (which are always active).

Theres a reason I personally have my TCU disconnected at all times ??
TCU = ??? . I do a lot to create a small digital footprint (rooted my phone, use "adway" which creates a 125K hosts file to redirect crosstalk to 0.0.0.0, firewalls, VPN etc etc) so how best do this in my "Your 2023 F-150 Lightning XLT is being shipped ..." soon to be delilvered new truck.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!!
 

ctuan13

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TCU = ??? . I do a lot to create a small digital footprint (rooted my phone, use "adway" which creates a 125K hosts file to redirect crosstalk to 0.0.0.0, firewalls, VPN etc etc) so how best do this in my "Your 2023 F-150 Lightning XLT is being shipped ..." soon to be delilvered new truck.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!!
TCU = Telematics Control Unit
Basically the modem and module that communicates with Ford's command center and the internet.

Disabling it does disable FordPass functionality(I was never gonna use that anyway), but does leave onboard navigation intact albeit without live charging station monitoring, etc, but 100% worth it for me.

Here's my video on the issue and a workaround:
 

Danface

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TCU = Telematics Control Unit
Basically the modem and module that communicates with Ford's command center and the internet.

Disabling it does disable FordPass functionality(I was never gonna use that anyway), but does leave onboard navigation intact albeit without live charging station monitoring, etc, but 100% worth it for me.

Here's my video on the issue and a workaround:
I half guess that, thanks for the info!
 

ctuan13

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I half guess that, thanks for the info!
And if you're disappointed in Ford's removal of remote start functionality from the keyfob and now only being available within the FordPass app, the StartX kit is an excellent work around. Zero cutting, splicing or permanent modification. All plug and play and the only programming required is learning the module itself. I've been very happy with the results:

 

Danface

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I half guess that, thanks for the info!
Just going to add a switch on the hot lead behind the seat so I can turn it off and on for software updates .


Thanks, that was just what I was looking for!!
Dan
 

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ctuan13

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Just going to add a switch on the hot lead behind the seat so I can turn it off and on for software updates .


Thanks, that was just what I was looking for!!
Dan
Great minds think alike!

Oh and just a tip, delete your phone's profile and associated data before reconnecting the modem for an update.

Now unless someone can get access to the source code I guess we can never really know for sure if it's really deleted, but based on some of the discovery documents in recent court cases, it appears that Ford's Sync system will retain data from a phone even after it is disconnected from the vehicle and if a cellular connection is unavailable, will store and transmit that data back to the server when connectivity is reestablished.
 

Danface

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Great minds think alike!

Oh and just a tip, delete your phone's profile and associated data before reconnecting the modem for an update.

Now unless someone can get access to the source code I guess we can never really know for sure if it's really deleted, but based on some of the discovery documents in recent court cases, it appears that Ford's Sync system will retain data from a phone even after it is disconnected from the vehicle and if a cellular connection is unavailable, will store and transmit that data back to the server when connectivity is reestablished.
This could be fun, root an android tablet and set it up as the replacement for their system :)
 

Danface

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This could be fun, root an android tablet or set top box and set it up for anonymity and use it as the replacement for their system :)
Matter of fact, I had to remove on the entries in my hosts file to use the Ford Vehicle tracking site
 
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