The trading transactions of car buying and selling have increased drastically over the last decade, particularly in the Middle East where a highly organised car market functions selling good-quality cars and ensure all the paperwork is collected before transferring the ownership into someone else’s hands. There are several automotive portals which enliven this process and educate about the compendium of things to keep in mind while selling or purchasing a car. However, call it the indolent attitude of us or mere ignorance, a survey claims that a whopping 79-percent of drivers don’t take steps to wipe off their personal data when selling their car leading to follies in the future or malapropism on part of some contemptuous drivers. This is an almost ubiquitous blunder and here are some tips revealed by an expert from Confused.com on how to erase your private data when bidding adieu to your prized possession.
1. Clear the list of all Bluetooth devices: Albeit most of us aren’t unbeknownst of the fact that Bluetooth devices can only be connected within a certain range, it is good to empty the roster showing all phone devices paired in the past. Nowadays, phones are connected to stream music, play videos, call and hands-free texts. As some of the data is retained by the car depending on its model and make, it is good to play safe and remove all the Bluetooth data.
2. Sign out of apps: Here’s a small payback for you after savouring your favourite music, browsing data and locations you’d have ventured on using the in-built navigation. That payback comes in the form of deleting all the data input by you over the years. Since most cars today have enabled Apple CarPlay and Android Auto service, enormous amounts of data is being accessed by the car which can be tinkered or manipulated if not removed before bidding goodbye to your car with a moist eye. Due heed must be paid to ways by which the next owner can never access music accounts, calendars and other such features.
3. Deprive the buyer of your contacts and call history: Mobile numbers and contacts are being linked or synced with the car’s infotainment system for easy calling and so that eyes don’t have to be taken off the road. However, as we pair our devices on a regular basis with the car, the number of contacts increase manifold. To ensure that none of the contacts fall in the hands of the new owner of the car, those should be deleted manually. Some contacts such as those of our associates and loved ones are extremely crucial to us and conscious attempt should be made to delete those from the car’s memory. It is a tedious process but one that will avoid conundrums or preposterous events in future.
4. Delete saved addresses: It is better to avoid others know your place of occupation, places you visit for a weekend getaway or residence and relatives’ address. It is vital to keep this information cached so that no one can misuse it.
5. Remove all external storage: External storage comes in the form of USB storage and SD card. This data comprises important work files, music albums, photos, videos and much more which is private. It needs to be preserved somewhere else and to prevent it from getting exposed, should be cleared from the storage.
6. Refer to the car’s manual: Just as employees require refresher training, it is quite possible that one might not find the path leading to a specific function of the menu. Hence, it would be advisable to read the User’s Manual to understand each function and the way of using it so that right commands in less time can be selected and the data can be restored to its original settings.
7. Reset your car at the dealership: In case you aren’t able to figure out something or find this process to be an ordeal, you can receive expert’s guidance by the professional personnel at a dealership in case the job gets too perplexing for you. They will be more rapid in vanquishing the possible aims of the future owner to distort your data by removing it in moments. Information about your seating style, locations, devices married with your car, etc. is removed faster as they can easily format it to previous settings using technology aids.
While such checks are essential for us to be secure in an environment driven by humongous technological advancements and increased susceptibility to defraud others, we must ensure that the data of the previous user of the car is also deleted when purchasing a used car. This will make things transparent and easy to live with.
Fun fact: Do you know which brand collects the most data about its drivers? It’s Tesla and it is seconded by Audi.
Source:https://www.confused.com/car-
