What is your phone telling your rental car?

What happens when you rent a connected car? When you use the car’s infotainment system, it may store personal information. It may keep locations you entered in GPS or visited when travelling in the rental car – like where you work or live. If you connect a mobile device, the car may also keep your mobile phone number, call and message logs, or even contacts and text messages. Unless you delete that data before you return the car, other people may view it, including future renters and rental car employees or even hackers.

If you decide to rent a connected car, here are some steps you can take to protect your personal information:

• Avoid connecting your mobile phones or devices to the infotainment system just for charging.
• Check your permissions.
• Delete your data from the infotainment system before returning the car.