It’s gossip, just online. Gossip has been a human past time ever since language was created.
I’m talking out of my ass, but your data is likely still there whether you choose to create an account or not; so you’re still susceptible to data breaches either way.
Both links are paywalled, but if I’m remembering correctly, that company (CMG) eventually had to correct their claim that phones were actively listening to everything you say. It was an overzealous marketing guy trying to oversell. They admitted in the end that they use the same info that data brokers have on you based on data gathered from your browsing and other activity, not from actively listening to you.
Siri for example is designed in a way where it “listens” for your voice to call it, but that mechanism is completely separate from the actual Siri that connects to the internet to understand you.
I was gonna say they still need the fob for the car to actually drive it, but saw it mentioned in the article. I don’t have a Kia (used to, but traded it in because of the immobilizer shit), but my car right now has an app to remote-start, but the car itself won’t let you drive it if you don’t have the fob on you while sitting in the driver’s seat.
But yes, that’s just bad security.