JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is warning people to delete any personal information stored in your car before you sell it.
If you don’t, you could be giving the next owner access to information like your address, route to work or even your garage door code.
John Harkless, Store Manager and Internet Director at Orange Park Auto Mall, told News4Jax many people forget to delete the information before they sell or trade-in their car. In fact, he said personal information is still in the car 75-80% of the time.
“Be diligent,” Harkless said. “Take care of your personal belongings, make sure that everything is secure especially in this technical world that we live in now.”
He adds the process to delete the information is simple and similar in most cars. The best way to delete the information is to go to settings and delete from there. If you need more information on how to clear the data, you can look in your car’s manual.
Before you sell or trade-in your car, don’t forget to also clear the glove box.
“A lot of people have their written notes and stuff in the owner’s manual, that’s a big problem because when we get them traded in, you see the owner’s manual, you see the address, you see their names, their cell phone numbers,” Harkless explained. “With the computerized stuff, they need to make sure they wipe out their data. They should go into the same settings that you would put your data in and make sure you erase it because you have all your cell phone numbers that you store, your families numbers, etc. It’s a lot.”