The person worried about it being Big Brother is stuck in the 1970's it would seem, worrying about Big Brother watching, and radiation concerns from technology. Then actually having the audacity to waste a dealerships time & money to have something removed from the car that is clearly shown in the brochures and literature and features, and calming they were forced into buying it.... 
I'm not in the least worried about 'big brother' - As you say, tech companies already have the means to harvest data without relying on vw.
To be fair, I've only has my car for three days and the warning lights and voices are already driving me mad. I live in an area with patchy mobile signal, and the warning comes on literally every time I drive the car. I can live with the system not functioning all the time - There is a red/green light above the mirror to tell me if it's active or not, therefore I don't need the audible warning, nor the repeated reminders and amber lights on the dash. If there's a way of doing it, I'd get them turned off and rely on the light by the button.
The system is great in theory, but clearly designed for people who live in an area with a faultless mobile signal. I wonder which network the built in sim is trying to access?
