You could probably go either way on that strategy. If you had this capability, and you suspected your adversary may be malicious, it is probably better to keep quiet and then destroy their credibility afterwards. If they are malicious, and know that they are being monitored, they might be more inclined to keep you blind to them. If Tesla knows that the monitoring can be disabled (it obviously can - how easily is the question), or thinks a reporter might go so far as to switch cars, they probably would not want the monitoring known.
On the other hand, if I had very little monitoring ability, I would probably overstate these abilities so that the adversary doesn't test them.
Broder's implication that there is a privacy scandal there seems like a weak distraction. Elon said plainly that they do not monitor customers by default, but they turn this on for reviewers, citing the Top Gear review scandal. This is totally reasonable, and so is lying to a reviewer about whether or not it is enabled (even if they didn't lie). It's not comparable to lying to customers.
'turning it only on for X' is the same philosophy as having a back door in your software. "Oh, don't worry, only we will use it, and only for legitimate reasons. Trust us!"
I assume it has to be enabled with physical access to the vehicle, though I don't know this for certain. If they can turn it on remotely, then yeah, that's definitely bad.
I've been arguing about this article on another forum, and have been looking closely at how Musk is interpreting his own data - and he's being loose and fancy-free with it (both sides have engaged in embellishment, it seems). As a result, I don't think he's a shining bastion of honesty - I wouldn't trust Tesla any more than any other entity.
On the other hand, if I had very little monitoring ability, I would probably overstate these abilities so that the adversary doesn't test them.
Broder's implication that there is a privacy scandal there seems like a weak distraction. Elon said plainly that they do not monitor customers by default, but they turn this on for reviewers, citing the Top Gear review scandal. This is totally reasonable, and so is lying to a reviewer about whether or not it is enabled (even if they didn't lie). It's not comparable to lying to customers.