Personal info is meant to be private. It is also supposed to be secure. So many devices have our information synced up with them and can be accessed at any given time. Getting rid of a new phone? Wipe the hard drive. Upgrading your computer? Wipe the hard drive. Cars are no different.
Banking info, login credentials and personal information can be traced back through your car. It houses your life for a substantial part of the day. This is a critical step when you are thinking of selling your vehicle. The amount of people who do not erase their personal information from their car is staggering. If you do not take this precaution, then you are giving strangers access to your life.
We are here to give you five examples of wiping your car’s memory banks. By wiping your car of all synced, downloaded and paired data, you will be securing your personal information and living a safer life.
Delete Phone Contacts
One of the first things that most car owners do when they purchase a new vehicle is to sync their contacts. This makes perfect sense, really. One of the most safest ways to drive is hands free. Calling someone without having to take your eyes off the road saves lives.
When syncing your contacts, you car has stored all contact data including names, numbers, text messages and other information.
Now, every car, phone, and service provider is different. This means you may need to look through your phone to find the precise way to delete this information from your vehicle. You can edit the specific settings that connect your phone to your car. Simply follow the instructional guides to safely remove the appropriate data.
Remove Personal Info from GPS
Another step that drivers often look over is erasing your on-board GPS. The little computer located in the center of your dashboard is a gold-mine for data. This keeps track of your daily driving, locations, work, and even your home.
Without removing this information before selling your vehicle, you are putting not only your personal information at risk, but the personal information of friends and family too.
Log into your on-board GPS and manage your info settings. Through basic navigation, you should be able to locate the menu that allows you to wipe everything clean. This will get rid of all previous map locations. Sometime’s this does not remove everything and the information can be stored in the GPS memory banks. If this is the case, you will need to run a full system restore on your vehicles GPS.
Wipe All House Info
With new technologies like Alexis, you can control almost any part of your house via your car. Need your blinds open at 35 degrees for optimum sunlight when you get home? Ask your cars computer. Does Frank Sinatra start to play when you open the door? Your car computer can do it. Heck, want coffee to be ready at 6 a.m. tomorrow? The computer in your car can do that too.
Personal information can be accessed via a cars on-board computer. Selling a vehicle without wiping personal information can leave you open to hacking. Whoever purchases your car next can have access to all forms of your house.
Navigate the vehicle settings in order to wipe all personal information from the hard drive. This can be extensive if an owner has their house synced up to the car. Nobody wants their thermostat to start rising in the middle of the night due to the new owner of the car messing with their settings.
Erase All Personal Info From Mobile Data
All saved login data can be transferred to your vehicles on-board computer. From saved passwords to login credentials. Your phone acts as a doorway of personal information. Newer vehicles can even help locate a persons phone (even if they have it one them) so watch out for someone trying to locate someones home.
Navigate your phones settings and erase all login credentials, saved passwords, and browsing history to ensure a clean slate.
Expunge Digital Subscriptions
Digital subscriptions like satellite radio can be another gateway for the next vehicle owner to gain access to your information. Newer vehicles allow drivers to transfer account information from your phone to the dashboard. This data can be deeply embedded into the hard drive of the central computing system.
Its is crucial to notify any existing subscription services that a new vehicle has been purchased and that the old vehicle has been sold. They will happily transfer all information into the new vehicle while expunging all information from the previous vehicle.
Taking these steps is required for keeping personal information safe and secure. One slip up can cost someone illegal access to all accounts, history, banking information and could be more costly than simply purchasing a new car. The best way to win is to play it safe.
