2026 Mach-E connected services

[imm16]

New member here - is there any specific settings under the "Connected services" that will allow me to have some basic functionality in Ford App and at the same time not to share all my information with Ford. I stll believe they will sell my information, even I am prety sure they will deny that. TIA

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[Jimrpa]

I don’t think there’s anyway to get the remote access without establishing some kind of Ford account.
You could try to create a throwaway ford account coupled to a throwaway email but remember that they know who “you” are as the owner of the vehicle via the VIN, so that would not be a very effective way to “hide”.

 

[New2EV]

No...they want your data

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...the-“ford-app”-version-6-0.49859/post-1032625

 

[imm16]

Well, will try without Ford App for a while to see how everyting will go

 

[alexw]

No...they want your data

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/fordpass-app-is-now-the-“ford-app”-version-6-0.49859/post-1032625

Op, I agree - Unfortunately I also agree that there seems to be no easy granular options. In a perfect world, I'd still have all the "benign and useful" data in the ford backend, since I collect it for my own use in Home Assistant - stuff like GPS location, states of charge, error indicators, so on (there's a LOT of telemetry! And not exactly benign, hah). I'd love to turn OFF the stuff that's only useful for an insurance company actuary - stuff like braking force, acceleration, speed - which it turns out is only sampled quite infrequently anyway. No can do, if you disable that setting in-car you lose all the charging telemetry in the app, and all the backend data that's not shown in the app, too.

That said there is an explicit setting in the car for "share this data with my insurance company" that's explicitly disabled, and the TOS seems to cover that case. So even with all the settings on, it seems there's some additional hoop to jump through to enable sharing with insurance companies that's not default, and maybe not even currently supported.

If anyone's interested I can post a deep dive abut what data Ford collects - it's actually quite interesting and enables lots of fun and useful automations if you're technically inclined!

 

[RickMachE]

New member here - is there any specific settings under the "Connected services" that will allow me to have some basic functionality in Ford App and at the same time not to share all my information with Ford. I stll believe they will sell my information, even I am prety sure they will deny that. TIA

In short, no.

The only way to use the Ford app is for the car to communicate with Ford's servers, which then puts the info in the app (and vice-versa). You want functionality, it goes through their servers.

As far as them selling data, you can go read all about that if you want.

Keep in mind that your cell phone is collecting location data and selling that also.

 

[Blue PonyE]

I recently found out Plug and Charge is also disabled unless you share your driving data. It was a few months since I used a public charger and found that I was not able to charge directly to my saved credit card. After numerous contacts with a very helpful Ford assistant, I finally figured out the only way to use plug and charge was to enable the share driving data. Very invasive to use a feature that was not required previously.

 

[imm16]

Keep in mind that your cell phone is collecting location data and selling that also.

I agree, the cell phone is snooping all day long but it does not selling this data to my insurance company to increase my rate.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

The trend is against the interests of anyone seeking privacy. It’s hard to fight everyone all the time. I feel like to @imm16 point, the most important is for the data not to make it to insurance companies (like GM did).

Potbelly knows that I’m close to their restaurant too and wants to lure me in. I’m less concerned about that than getting into litigation with my insurance for denied claims.

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