AUTOMOTIVE
Don’t Drive Away from Your Data
When renting a car, deleting your personal data is crucial to protect your privacy. Here’s how to do it.
By Dick Snyder
Unplugging your phone from your rental car doesn’t remove your data from its system, you’ll need to take further steps to protect your privacy. | PHOTOS: (ABOVE) PIXEL-SHOT/ADOBE STOCK; (BELOW) SMISHURA/ADOBE STOCK
IT’S ALWAYS SMART to have a to-do checklist when returning a rental car. Got your charging cord? Check. Computer bag and luggage? Check. Anything in the glove box? Check. Erase all your personal data that was downloaded from your smartphone? Uh, wait — what?
Truth is, vehicles today are as smart as your smartphone. As soon as you connect to a rental vehicle’s infotainment system, you may be sharing personal information with that vehicle and, by extension, with the manufacturer. And, even worse, once you drop that vehicle off at the kiosk and walk away, your personal information isn’t walking away with you.
“Just deleting your phone from the car’s system doesn’t guarantee all data is erased,” says Jason Kerr, CAA National’s managing director of government relations. Navigation history, garage door codes, even names from seat profiles can be retained. If your entire contact list has been downloaded, the next renter might have names, email addresses and phone numbers for your entire family as well as your employer, banker, doctor — the list goes on. For now, Kerr says, the onus is on you to delete your data, which may be stored either on the car’s computer or in the cloud. Consumer Reports recommends the free app Privacy4Cars, which walks you through the steps to delete information from the specific vehicle you’re returning. This will help to ensure that the vehicle has not retained any personal data, including deleted phone messages, texts and video footage collected by the vehicle’s camera.
SIMPLE STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY
From the Consumer Reports article in February 2025, “How to Clear Your Personal Data from a Car.”
- Unpair your phone from the car.
- Remove your credit card and banking information from the car.
- Factory-reset the infotainment system.
When you pick up your rental, indulge in all of the great tech it offers — from the navigation system to the smartphone integrations. Just remember that a few minutes of your time will help ensure your safety and privacy is secured and all of your data is removed when you return it. CAA continues to advocate on the part of drivers, demanding that manufacturers make the process of deleting data easier. CAA
IT'S ALWAYS SMART to have a to-do checklist when returning a rental car. Got your charging cord? Check. Computer bag and luggage? Check. Anything in the glove box? Check. Erase all your personal data that was downloaded from your smartphone? Uh, wait — what?
Truth is, vehicles today are as smart as your smartphone. As soon as you connect to a rental vehicle’s infotainment system, you may be sharing personal information with that vehicle and, by extension, with the manufacturer. And, even worse, once you drop that vehicle off at the kiosk and walk away, your personal information isn’t walking away with you. “Just deleting your phone from the car's system doesn’t guarantee all data is erased,” says Jason Kerr, CAA National’s managing director of government relations. Navigation history, garage door codes, even names from seat profiles can be retained. If your entire contact list has been downloaded, the next renter might have names, email addresses and phone numbers for your entire family as well as your employer, banker, doctor — the list goes on. CAA continues to advocate on the part of drivers, demanding that manufacturers make the process of deleting data easier. For now, Kerr says, the onus is on you to delete your data. This means that you will need to spend time figuring out how to do just that. Here’s some advice from a Consumer Reports article in February this year, titled “How to Clear Your Personal Data from a Car.”
- Unpair your phone from the car.
- Remove your credit card and banking information from the car.
- Factory-reset the infotainment system.
But that may not be enough. You should check that the vehicle has not retained deleted phone messages, texts and video footage collected by the vehicle’s camera. All of this may be stored either on the car’s computer or on the cloud. Consumer Reports recommends the free app Privacy4Cars, which walks you through the steps to delete information from the specific vehicle you’re returning.
When you pick up your rental, indulge in all of the great tech it offers — from the navigation system to the smartphone integrations. Just remember that a few minutes of your time will help ensure your safety and privacy is secured and all of your data is removed when you return it. CAA