There’s More Personal Data in your Car than you Realize

Whether trading in, selling to a 3rd party, or walking away from a lease, cleanliness matters. It can be a chore to make sure you got everything out of your car.  There’s more to lose than just some loose change under your seats.  Did you get your data out of the car too? 

Automobiles are constantly being updated with the newest and latest technology to make driving and interacting with the world while driving easier, but with all this technology comes an inherent danger of losing your information to malignant forces. The good news is that there are easy ways to keep your info safe before you hand over the keys to your old car. 

How Do You Protect Yourself?  

First things first, the easiest thing to do is to delete your devices off the vehicle. This can be done easily in a few steps.  

1. Go into your “Settings” in your vehicle’s audio/entertainment head unit. 
2. Scroll and select “Phone Settings. 
3. Scroll and select “Bluetooth Device List”. 
4. Select the device you want to delete. 
5. Scroll and select “Delete this device”.  
6. Press Confirm. 

It’s just that easy. 

Other things to remember to delete are: 

1. Phone contacts 
2. Maps and addresses 
3. Mobile apps 
4. Garage door codes 
5. Digital content subscriptions  
   1. For example, you can usually transfer your SiriusXM subscription to the new vehicle.  

Factory Reset 

Honda models from 2016 and above will have a factory reset button in the head unit. Here is how you do it: 

1. Go to settings. 
2. Select “System”. 
3. Select “Others” tab. 
4. Select “Factory Data Reset”.  
5. Confirm. 
6. Confirm. 
7. Do not turn off the vehicle while it resets.  

And there you have it, the head unit has been reset to factory settings. 

Apps like Privacy4Cars can help you in the process of removing your data from a vehicle before you turn it in by giving you step by step instructions based on your vehicle on how to do so. However, feel free to contact the dealer for more information on how to scrub clean your vehicle of your personal data if you have any questions or concerns.