An OBD2 device is a gadget you plug into your car to read information about how it’s running. Some of these gadgets send that information to an app or online, which can create privacy concerns.
Concept
defeats to break the law
They’re talking about ways people can bypass or trick a car’s emissions controls. That can be illegal because those systems are meant to keep the car from polluting too much.
EasyLink is the company discussed in the story. The government is looking into whether their products helped people change cars in ways that could be illegal for emissions reasons.
The Department of Justice is the U.S. government agency that investigates and enforces federal laws. In this segment, it’s the agency looking into the EasyLink situation.
Emission systems are the parts in a truck that help it pollute less. They’re designed to meet government rules and the car can often tell if they’re working.
The aftermarket is everything that isn’t the original factory setup—like companies and shops that modify cars after purchase. Here, it’s about people selling or installing emissions-related deletes or bypasses.
“Software tuned” means changing the truck’s computer settings. In emissions-related cases, that can be used to bypass the pollution-control behavior the truck normally follows.
EZLink is a tool/platform mentioned in the episode. The discussion is about whether it was used to help bypass a truck’s emissions controls, even if it wasn’t the company directly creating the “tune.”
A diesel delete usually means removing emissions parts from a diesel truck and changing the truck’s computer so it doesn’t use them anymore. It’s controversial because it can make the truck pollute more and may be illegal.
Reflashing the ECU means changing the truck’s computer software. After removing emissions parts, people often reflash it so the truck stops trying to use or monitor those parts.
A diesel particulate filter is a part on many diesel trucks that catches the smoky soot in the exhaust. It periodically cleans itself by burning that soot off.
Section 230 is a U.S. law that gives internet platforms some legal protection for content or actions from other people. The hosts are using it as a comparison to explain how liability works.
Flashing software means updating or rewriting the car’s computer code. Tuners do this to change how the car runs, and sometimes to affect emissions behavior.
Cars store error codes when something goes wrong. Clearing codes can turn off the warning light, but if the problem is still there, the codes usually come back.
Electronic logging devices are used in commercial trucking to automatically record when a driver is driving and when they’re off duty. They help fleets follow hours-of-service rules.
Tampering with the OBD-II port means interfering with the car’s diagnostic access. If it’s used to bypass emissions monitoring, it can violate emissions rules.
It’s a trick in some diesel vehicles that makes the emissions system behave differently depending on the situation. That can help the truck pass tests, but it may pollute more during normal driving.
Emissions regulations are laws about how much pollution vehicles are allowed to produce. The point is to keep cars from releasing too many harmful gases.
A scan tool is a gadget that talks to your car’s computer. It can show what error codes are stored so you can figure out what might be wrong.
Term
tuned diesel trucks
“Tuned diesel trucks” refers to diesel vehicles that have been modified with aftermarket engine calibration (a tune) to change performance and/or how emissions systems operate. Depending on the tune, it can range from benign drivability changes to illegal emissions defeat strategies.
Power limitations are when the truck intentionally makes less power. Automakers do this when the emissions system isn’t working right or when required fluids like DEF aren’t available.
A DPF is a filter on many diesel trucks that catches soot. If you remove it, the truck can pollute more and may not run correctly without extra changes.
Software tuning means changing the truck’s computer settings. If you remove emissions parts, the computer usually needs to be adjusted too so it doesn’t complain or run poorly.
Aftertreatment systems are the parts on a diesel that clean the exhaust after the engine has already burned the fuel. They help the truck meet emissions rules.
The tailpipe is the exhaust outlet at the back of the vehicle. In the context of diesel emissions, it’s where you’d otherwise see pollutants leaving if the aftertreatment system isn’t capturing and converting them effectively.
The Ford F-250 is a big, heavy-duty pickup truck. The episode mentions it because diesel emissions equipment can cause issues that leave owners without a working truck.
A “deleted” or “defeated” emissions system means someone has modified the truck so its emissions equipment doesn’t work the way it was designed to. That can cause problems later, even if it seems to help in the short term.
It usually means someone removed emissions parts and then changed the engine’s computer settings to match. That can affect how the truck runs and whether it passes emissions checks.
Here, “paper trail” means written records that could prove what was done to the vehicle. If there’s documentation, it can be harder for a seller to avoid responsibility.
“Straight piped” usually means the exhaust was modified to remove emissions-related parts. The truck may sound louder and can be harder to keep legal for emissions testing.
LIVE
Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Drive Cast.
I'm Joel Federer, Director of Content and Product at The Drive.
And I'm Caleb Jacobs, Senior Editor at The Drive.
And The Drive Cast is our weekly podcast, giving you an inside look at the biggest stories,
controversies, and people shaping the automotive industry.
Today, we're talking about consumer data privacy, OBD2 devices, consumers defeating their vehicle
mission systems, and the federal government.
Now, where have we heard this before?
Two years ago, EasyLink was in the news for its products, how they were being used,
and what they were enabling consumers to do with their vehicles.
Now, five years later, the book is opened again, and the Department of Justice is looking at how
EasyLink might have assisted customers in modifying their vehicles in a way that violates the Clean Air Act.
And as you would imagine, the reactions to all this have been rather strong and mixed.
There are those who aren't a fan of fuel economy and clean air regulations.
Then there are those who wonder why the device is storing any data in the cloud
rather than only locally on the device itself.
That's before addressing the federal authorities demanding data be handed over for private citizens.
Where do privacy laws kick in versus consumers using a consumer-grade tool to enable defeats to break the law?
Yeah, exactly.
It's messy, everyone has a take on the situation, and it's all over the internet.
Like all things involving the government, consumer data privacy and the EPA and regulations,
but we're going to break it down here today quickly.
By the way, if you like what we're doing here, do us a favor and hit us with a five-star review
on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
It really does help get the drive cast in front of more people.
Okay, let's go.
So just to get this out of the way, I do want to apologize.
We are weekly podcast.
You are not crazy.
We did not have an episode last week.
This is now episode 16.
A confluence of events you might or might not believe.
I was traveling in Austria and Germany on assignment.
Kyle was going to record the podcast.
And then something about smallpox and fleas and a possible scenario.
I don't really know.
Everyone's fine.
Ten plagues.
Kyle's fine.
Everyone's fine.
We didn't have a podcast last week.
I apologize.
Caleb is breaking up laughing over this because it's like the Ten Commandments with the plagues
and all of these things.
Anyway, so real talk.
We're here today.
We're back.
Caleb, the whole diesel delete and def in all these workaround systems, right?
There is a very vocal contingent online screaming the government.
And these are unreliable.
And we're going to delete and defeat these things on trucks, et cetera, cetera.
Is this like a lot of people are doing this?
Or is this the case of one of those things where there's a lot of loud people but not
a ton of people doing it?
Just a lot of noise.
What's the deal here?
A lot of people have been doing it for years and even more than a decade, actually.
So since emission systems were put in place on diesel pickup trucks, the aftermarket has
been finding ways to remove that.
And for years, they got by by saying that it was for off-road use only.
But that quickly became an issue in the mid 2010s, late 2010s.
We started to see the federal government come after not so much individuals, but definitely
shops, tuners, aftermarket companies that either built and manufactured these parts
or installed them or provided software tuned.
So that's kind of how we see EZLink wrapped up in this.
Not so much that they were ones that were that were writing tunes that would enable
trucks to run without their emission systems, but that they provided a platform that tuners
could then misuse to install on their trucks and defeat their emission systems.
That's the whole, that's the name of the game here, that trying to decide along with the
federal government, did EZLink do this on purpose to enable emissions deletes?
Or did they simply provide a platform that other people abused?
Fair enough.
Prevalent issue.
Got it.
So and before we get into the EZLink and the news and everything,
there are countless ways to do this, right?
Like EZLink is our way and that is the news we're going to talk about today.
And it opens this whole Pandora's box here.
But like this is Pandora's box and it's not just EZLink.
There are multiple ways you could do a diesel delete system on your truck, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's essentially just what method you take to reflash your ECU after you've removed
diesel particulate filter exhaust gas recirculation system.
EZLink was just an incredibly popular route that people would take.
I mean, you can look back on the past probably six years of my writing career and see just how
frequently this has come up in the news, just how big of a target it had become for the federal
government.
And what I think is interesting now to see is that the feds, especially through the EPA,
they focused on deregulation.
They've really put a lot of this stuff aside and yet we still see the DOJ going after EZLink.
And really right now, this kind of transitions the conversation to be one that's about
privacy and data concerns, even more so than it is environmental.
Well, it's just crazy to even hear the words data privacy concerns and all that stuff when
it talks about just deleting the emissions equipment on my pickup truck.
But hey, cars are connected now, right?
So let's take a look and just dive into today's topic here.
What are we even talking about here today?
I know we said EZLink in the intro.
We talked about OBD2 and diesel delete.
But what's the history?
Because this all started, again, like you said, four to five years ago, right?
And it was actually under a whole different timeline.
So what is the history?
What's the situation?
How do we get here?
Give us a back context here.
Yeah, sure.
So EZLink is a name that people may or may not be familiar with.
If you've been involved with diesel trucks, there's a good chance that you've heard of them.
What started all of this was in 2021, the DOJ actually sued EZLink, essentially on behalf
of the EPA, saying that they provided a way for customers to circumvent the emission systems on
their truck, allowing it to pollute more noxious gas, roll black smoke, what so many people
are associated with.
But that was in 2021.
So it was five years ago at this point.
Therefore, a while they went back and forth.
This was in the news.
I remember reporting it back then.
What we saw eventually happen was that the courts ruled an EZLink's favor under what's
called Section 230.
And so what that does is provide protection for a platform that others use and misuse,
essentially just absolves them from responsibility, saying, hey, just because you provided the
platform doesn't mean you were actively involved in the illegal activity that took place on it.
That was then overturned, that protection under Section 230.
It was overturned in 2025.
An appellate court said that actually this does not count under Section 230.
And just to maybe give a little bit of context, a little bit of reference.
Section 230 is what protects companies like Facebook and Instagram from being legally punished
for illegal activity that takes place on this platform.
So it's still, it's kind of the same thing here.
So that's why you can't refer to EZLink as a diesel tuner because really they manufacture
an OBD2 tool that people then use to flash software, clear codes, things like that.
So it's marketed to the masses as a way to, you know, check the OBD2 port on your car or truck.
Fleets can use it to keep track of electronic logging devices, you know, like if it's,
if you have a big commercial fleet.
So it would not be accurate to call EZLink itself a diesel tuner,
but diesel tuners most certainly have used EZLink for these purposes for well over a decade.
And it's easy to find that online.
That's, there's nothing arbitrary about me saying that.
You can go online, you can search EZLink diesel tuner.
I found posts about it on Facebook as recently as two weeks ago.
And now that's much more of a hush-hush conversation,
but it's still happening out loud in certain places.
So much of that has been because of the deregulation and relaxed emphasis on criminal
charges against people that tamper with OBD2 ports with the EPA.
So that's, that's kind of the backstory here.
Well, and what's interesting about everything you just, hang on,
there's a lot of interesting things about what you say.
Everything you say is interesting, Caleb.
But one particular thing you just said that is interesting is that,
yes, the reason we're talking about this is it's being used as a diesel defeat device, right,
to, to, to defeat emissions regulations, tools and, and, and infrastructure in the trucks.
But the reality is, is this is a scan tool.
This is a device that, like you said, you clear codes, you know, you got code in your car.
It's like, is it my cats?
Is it a spark plug?
Like what is the issue?
And people are using it for a particular issue or a particular use case here.
Right.
But like, it's not a nefarious device that's being sold, right?
This is something, there's countless versions of these kinds of devices.
You can go buy an auto zone or Riley's, advanced auto parts, whatever, Amazon.
Now, not all of them probably can do this diesel defeat situation, I would assume.
Was that accurate, Caleb?
Yeah, yeah.
And, and whether or not you consider an EZ-Link auto agent nefarious,
depends on what you believe EZ-Link's involvement to be in this diesel after market community,
right?
So if you go on their website, you wouldn't find any reference to using this two
tuned diesel trucks.
That is very clear.
They also have several disclaimers that say, whatever the, the third party,
you know, whatever software they use, whatever they put on this device,
that's their thing.
It's not our thing.
So yeah, it, there's, there's a lot of controversy as to, you know, how aware
was EZ-Link that this was happening.
I think a lot of people are in favor of saying like, yeah, they, they were aware and they
continued to make that accessible to people.
But what we have here now is the Department of Justice sending subpoenas to companies
like Apple and Google to get user information, at least 100,000 users.
We don't have a solid number, but it's at least that many and likely more.
And what they're essentially trying to do is learn the use cases for each of these people
that have downloaded the EZ-Link auto agent app on their phones,
whether that be through the app store for Apple or the Google Play Store.
And this is where you have consumer privacy advocates swarming on this.
So just as much as this is an issue of environmental, really right now,
that's what we see happening and much of it was, was detailed in a Forbes report
that came out here just in the past recent few days that talked about more than 100,000 people
could have their data surrendered to the Department of Justice.
And the Department of Justice says, well, you know, you sign the terms and conditions,
you've pretty much waived your rights to maintaining that privacy.
And people have a lot to say about that and, and reasonably so, I think.
Why is this back in the news now?
Right? Because again, we, this, this all started five years ago.
Why all of a sudden did we just have a new report on this?
Yeah. Well, with, with, you know, the appellate court overturn of the Section 230 protection
in 2025. And then now we have these subpoenas being sent out.
That is really what has drawn the attention of tech outlets, you know, in the media.
And that's, for my part, I will not pretend to be an expert on, on this type of law.
Okay. Whenever we talk about Clean Air Act, that's something that I'm very familiar with
as, as I use that term, you know, Section 230 and what all is involved in that.
I don't want to give off the impression that it's like, I know everything that I'm talking about
to like the most precise detail. But that's why we see it going on is because the DOJ has asked
Apple and Google to hand over, whenever we talk about consumer data, this goes all the way down
to addresses and purchase history. Okay. So it's not, it's not just top level.
They are requesting very specific data that many people would not want to share,
especially for no good reason with the government. So a lot of that was, was uncovered in this Forbes
report that was just recently published. And so that's, that's why it's a hot topic right now.
I think you're going to see a lot more of it, not just in automotive spaces,
but in tech outlets everywhere. Obviously, we talked a little about you said it's about 100,000
people and that's only the number we know. Who really knows the true extent of this, of course,
right? Do you think this is going to spread? Is this Pandora's box being opened here? We've seen
a lot of Section 230 claims, obviously, around Facebook and Instagram and like teen imaging and
privacy laws and moderation. Do you see for the automotive community and what we're seeing right
here? Do you see this spreading and we're about to open Pandora's box? Is this going to be kind of
contained to what we're seeing now? Yeah, that's a good question. So in, in this Forbes report,
which I will continue to reference, they've done a great job on giving context and providing
information, you know, that's important to know the scale of this is approximately 10 times larger
than another recent noteworthy Section 230 probe where the government requested to see the consumer
data for people who had downloaded a gun scope app. I believe that was in 2019. And so what we
see here now is something that is at least 10 times as large in terms of scope. So we've seen
already that this can be escalated. There stands to be every possibility that this could escalate
even further. That's why I think the real danger is in this. Again, it's not necessarily providing
protections for people who have broken the law, but it's keeping people's data private who did not
use this in any nefarious way, right? Like just normal people that aren't clued in to what happens
in some niche corner of the automotive aftermarket using a device to keep track of how often their
fleet drivers are on the road for what periods of time or, you know, being able to clear a code
after they've replaced an oxygen sensor on their car at home. That's where I think the real danger
is in this. And that's why you see so many people paying close attention to it now that have not
covered the EZLink saga to this point. Fair enough. So the last time this happened actually,
I did look up some dates and look at stuff. Joe Biden was in the White House as president,
and now we have Donald Trump in the White House. And I mentioned this because I find this particularly
interesting, of course, is that, I mean, the general question is, does it matter? But the reason I
asked that is because, I mean, as you've reported and we at the drive reported, President Trump's
gutted the EPA, he's pulled back on electrification, he's pushed and stripped away climate change data
while whitewashing the concept on multiple levels. So, but this almost feels like it's going against
kind of everything else that we've now reported on. Like, why is this happening and why now?
Or do you think it's one of those things that like some lower level appellate court, like you said,
and the Trump administration are just not even involved, even though it's the federal government?
Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. So it is surprising to see. We have talked about this
pretty extensively on the online discourse, especially in the diesel truck community over
the past few years. Whenever Trump was inaugurated pretty soon after that, I published a story. I
think the headline was something like, diesel tuners can't wait for Trump's EPA to leave them alone,
but hold on just a minute. And the reason that I say it like that is because so many of the laws
that were already in place remain in place. And whether or not they're being enforced now by bodies
like the EPA does not necessarily mean they will not be enforced under future administrations.
And so you have seen what many in the diesel truck community would consider victories for them
as the federal government reconsider rules surrounding diesel exhaust fluid, especially
in cold weather states like Alaska and Wyoming. There has been lots of talks about stopping
power limitations whenever you run low on diesel exhaust fluid. This becomes a matter of both safety
and reliability. And it's a very nuanced conversation because while there is the obvious downside
of more emissions, it is true that it poses severe problems for fleets, especially of commercial
vehicles whenever their downtime is increased significantly due to faults with the emission
system. So whether or not, again, this is only so much a conversation about those things. But
it is surprising to see it happening now again. You would think that it would at least take a
break until whoever comes into office from 2028 on. And so yeah, it's hard to say. President Trump
has shown that he will get involved in scenarios like this. There was a diesel tuner in Wyoming
who was put in prison over emissions deletes. Then some of his state government campaigned for
a pardon and President Trump pardoned him. So whether or not we see that happen with Easy Link,
I mean, that's jumping the gun anyway as we don't know exactly what will happen with this case.
And there are quite a few differences too between that Trump pardon and what we're
talking about here between the DOJ and Easy Link. But still, it just shows that President Trump is
willing to get involved in cases like this that maybe seem like small potatoes to some, but
actually are pretty significant, especially as you talk about the precedent it might set for
other companies like Facebook and Instagram. Obviously, that would be a much, much, much,
much larger scale than this. And I hesitate to say that there will be knock-on effects for those
too, depending on how this goes. But again, it could happen.
And do you see this happening with others? So again, we've talked about Easy Link,
that's the one in the news and that's what we're seeing, right? But we've already discussed.
There are other solutions out there to this. Do you see this as cascading in that regard
or too early to tell? I would say that it's too early to tell,
but I would say that it's a valid concern, right? I think that anybody who knows what
they're talking about would say that whatever happens with this case could very well spread.
Deleting a diesel truck's emission systems is not as simple as taking a hacksaw
to a DPF. There is more to it than that. It requires not only software tuning,
but you have to make sure that everything is set up to run properly without that.
It's not something that you're just going to do in your driveway without any specialized tools.
And so I do think that this, like I said, maybe sets the precedent for the other tools that people
have used in the past without getting into any specifics. Yeah, it's interesting to see it take
this turn, right? Because I certainly never expected this to be a data privacy story. Whenever I
saw the Forbes report come up, I was like, oh, hold on a second. This is taking a completely
different angle from whenever I reported on the DOJ's case against EZ Lincoln 2021.
And so now you suddenly have all of these concerns, right? Will the federal government
go after end users? That's fairly new. It's always been a worry for folks,
but the folks that I've talked to who have been fined literally millions of dollars,
both in civil penalties and in criminal fines, they were aftermarket providers, right?
They were not just diesel truck owners. Closest thing that we've seen to that happen
was a guy named Mike Siebold who I interviewed. He listed a deleted Ram Cummins Power truck
on Facebook Marketplace and the state reached out to him and said, hey,
you better get the emission systems back on that truck. And it resulted in him crushing it.
And that was under the Biden administration, but that was at state level. So we have not seen much
outside of that, at least go extremely public in terms of end users, diesel truck owners who
have employed these devices to remove their emission systems. I think that is probably
the largest concern for anybody that's used these devices in the past for that purpose
is that they could get a knock at their door, depending on how seriously the feds take this.
And again, it's not just about how they act in the next 23 years. It's what comes after
that. So hard to say. Yeah, I do think that people are rightfully concerned of what could come of
this. And again, it's not, I don't say any of that is to provide protections for people that
clearly violate the law or anything like that. I think that it is certainly an imperfect solution
requiring diesel exhaust fluid even as it's efficient as it is. It's true. I just interviewed
engineers from Ford's Power Stroke team, from the Cummins Duramax team. They have
all spoken about how much more efficient modern diesel after treatment systems have become
and they clean up exhaust tremendously. I believe they said 90 to 95 percent they're able to capture
before it exits the tailpipe. So that part is fantastic. But whenever you continually run
into reliability problems that result in both more downtime and also lack of transportation for
people that use these as personal vehicles, and just keep in mind too. I think that it's easy
for folks to make an enemy out of truck owners because they say, oh, they all drive a $90,000
Platinum F-250. That's not always the case, right? Emission systems have been around long
enough at this point that it could be somebody with a 2010 Duramax-powered Chevy three-quarter ton
that is super base spec. They use it to haul lawn equipment and now suddenly they're without
their truck because their emission system shut down. So there's a lot of nuance to this situation
for sure. And that is not going away anytime soon.
If some guy, because you talked about an older truck, right? Like a guy has a truck that's not
brand new, 90,000 or Platinum. Is it possible someone could have bought a truck with a deleted
or defeated system and they wouldn't know it? Probably not from a dealership, I would presume,
but from a private party is possible. Is there some way someone could own a truck and not know
their system is not operating correctly? Yeah. Well, okay here. So you would not likely do that
from a dealer. Most dealers, especially at this point, having seen how the federal government
has gone after folks in the last five years, they are not going anywhere near a deleted truck.
It depends. I would say one how educated the truck buyer is and then also how common are
deletes in the area where you live. So like I live in the middle of the country. I live in Missouri.
Lots of good old boys here run in straight pipe diesel trucks. And if you think that's just the
way they sound, then yeah, I mean, I could see somebody buying something secondhand. It's definitely
not being advertised anymore for sale ads. Used to you would see that it would say, you know,
deleted and tuned. And that was a selling point for folks until the government started cracking
down on that pretty significantly. So the likelihood that a seller would disclose that,
especially with any kind of paper trail is that that's far less likely than it used to be.
And again, if you just don't know, I would say there's a chance that you could stumble into a
truck that has had its emission systems removed. Yeah, I really think that's that the answer to
that question is probably all over the place, right? Because if you have somebody like I could use
my grandpa for instance, right? If my grandpa said that he needed a work truck, and he found one that
was a 2012 that had, you know, 200,000 miles, right at this point, he may not know to ask whether
or not it's been straight piped with the DPF removed. He just wouldn't think about that.
There wasn't a thing for him growing up. And so I don't know. I think there are many different
buyers and many different drivers of diesel trucks. So to paint with broad strokes would be kind of
dangerous on that front, but never, never say it's not possible.
Never say never. That's a great, great place to end it. Take that advice to the bank, kids.
Caleb Jacob says never say never. I think that that is a perfect place to end it.
Wouldn't you say Caleb? Yeah, I mean, if you got any questions about this, or if you have any tips,
you know, as far as potential stories, maybe things that you've seen firsthand,
maybe something that you've been involved in, I'm sure a lot of you guys have thoughts.
You're more than free to email those to us tips at the drive.com. That's our tips line.
My email address is Caleb at the drive.com. That's Caleb with the C. You can send those stuff,
you know, any of that over to us and we'll sift through it. But yeah, I mean, at this point,
that's been the bread and butter of my writing career for, you know, the better part of five years.
Yeah, it's, it's not going away. I would just say it like that.
That's it for this week's episode of The Drive Cast. Thanks to Easy Link and the federal government
for opening the book on this again. To Caleb for his time and insights, thanks to our editor,
Tyler Mark, and thank you for listening. We'll be back next Wednesday with a special episode
you won't want to miss. Be sure to check out TheDrive.com for full coverage on this topic and
a whole lot more. Subscribe to one of our fine newsletters. They're free, by the way. Follow us
on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and subscribe to us on YouTube, where we've got a lot of cool
videos coming up. We'll see you next week, everyone. Bye.
About this episode
The Drivecast digs into how consumer OBD2/OBD-II tools and apps—especially EZLink—may have helped people bypass diesel emissions controls, while also raising data-privacy concerns. Hosts connect diesel “delete” and ECU reflashing to a DOJ case: in 2021 the DOJ sued EZLink on behalf of the EPA, and Section 230 protections were later overturned. They also discuss DOJ subpoenas to Apple and Google for user data, and how OBD2 tools can be used for both legitimate code clearing and potentially risky tracking or tampering.
Years ago EZ Lynk was in the news for its products, how they were being used, and what they were enabling consumers to do with their vehicles. Now, five years later, the book has been opened, again, and the department of justice is looking at how EZ Lynk enabled customers in modifying their vehicles in a way that violated laws. This time? The DOJ is targeting consumers and their data, which is a whole new set of issues.
So today, it’s The Drive's Director Of Content And Product Joel Feder and Senior Editor Caleb Jacobs discussing EZ Lynk, the DOJ, diesel defeat devices, and the Pandora's box that is being opened.
Stories mentioned in today's episode:
DOJ Orders Apple, Google to Hand Over OBDII App User Data in Emissions Probe
US Government Sues Diesel Truck Tuner EZ Lynk Over Emissions Defeat Devices
Fast Times and Million-Dollar Fines: Inside the EPA’s Messy War on Dirty Diesel Trucks
Trump Administration Guts Framework Behind U.S. Auto Emissions Regulations
Emissions Defeat Devices No Longer a Top Priority for EPA
Feds Won’t Pursue Criminal Charges Against Tuners for OBDII Tampering Anymore
Previously Imprisoned Diesel Tuner Receives Federal Pardon
00:00 Intro
01:33 About last week
05:25 History and how we got here today
08:20 EZ Lynk
09:38 Consumer privacy
13:02 The scale of the situation
14:13 From President Joe Biden to President Donald Trump
17:43 What comes next?
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