Don’t Leave Your Data Behind When You Rent or Sell a Car

Posted in Blog

Glenn Laga

Have you rented a car recently? Did you know that your rental car can hold your personal cell phone information, exposing it publicly to any future drivers. This is a problem many people face without even realizing the cellular phone data trail left behind in rental car bluetooth systems. After returning a rental car how can you assure that your information will not be recovered or even stolen? In recent years the trail of data left behind in rental car bluetooth systems have been investigated. When connecting to a hands-free bluetooth system in a car it stores some general data about you and your device. This helps the vehicle connect and reconnect with devices more easily. While the feature may seem convenient, it is very inconvenient to attempt to remove this data. In fact, most people don’t even realize that their data has been transferred and left in the auto infotainment system.  For most cars, there is no easy way to remove this information completely from the vehicle’s computer.

As more and more people begin to realize that this information can be collected, it gives car renters a greater sense of vulnerability. Simple information left behind in a vehicle’s bluetooth could lead to the discovery of more private information. There have been talks of possible solutions that rental companies can do to prevent a “breach”. In investigating these solutions they proved to be too expensive to implement with the manufacturer’s. With no scalable solution to the problem it is currently the responsibility of the drivers and the rental firms to handle to data issue. When returning my rental vehicle I am in search of peace of mind. With no clear system of destroying or erasing my private data from my cars’ computer I become vulnerable. Car renters deserve to have peace of mind without having to sacrifice any amenities.

Guardian Data Destruction is introducing a solution to ensure absolute data destruction in rental cars. Consumers will be able to remove their information from car bluetooth systems safely. It is our goal to help give our customers peace of mind in all aspects of privacy, security and electronic data destruction.