Watch Where Your Data Goes

Many of us have linked our phones to our cars. Such linkages enable hands free usage, making them popular. These linkages work through the use of bluetooth, a powerful but famously insecure technology that enables wireless transmissions over short distances. When a linkage is established, it makes all the personal information on your phone available to your car. Something many of us don't always think about.

Such information would include contact details, call and text logs, and perhaps even full text messages.

This vulnerability was brought to our attention in February by exposure of the CarsBlues Hack and since then has been addressed by some of the car manufacturers, so that some 2019 models have installed preventative measures. But others haven't. So this means when you give up control of your car, such as by selling it or returning it after leasing, it means you should wipe out the information in your car system. This can be done by using the settings function for your car's system. There are usually two steps - delete the phone connection, then delete the associated data from the system. For most cars, this is a relatively simple operation.

The problem with personal data on cars is similar to the issues around the growth of IoT devices, where any number of devices are connected to the internet. When you discard these devices, its wise to delete the data from the devices and also any related internet sites. This is not always simple, but worth doing in any event.