Staying connected and finding your way home has never been easier with modern cars, from your favorite contacts to your frequently visited destinations. The only problem is that with convenience comes a risk: data security. It is very convenient for the car’s computer to store your data, but that data is at risk when I sell my car to car wreckers near me. This, however, does not need to concern. If you want to protect the data on your car, you can wipe it in the same way you would wipe the data on a computer or mobile phone.
In the following list, you’ll find everything you need to do to remove data from your car when you’re selling, scrapping, or donating it:
- SD card or USB stick: If you’re selling your car to Car Wreckers South Auckland like CashForScrapCars with an SD card or USB stick in it, please either remove it or if it’s one that is going with the car, ensure you wipe the data on it on your computer before you leave it. A USB and SD card slot can generally be found in the center console, in the glove box, or on the dashboard of most vehicles. It is not uncommon for cars to have more than one removable data device, for example, an SD card for maps, and another one for music. You must make sure that you clear both of them before selling your car to Car Wreckers near me.
- Maps and Addresses: If your car is equipped with a satnav system, then there is a good chance that it has saved your favorite destinations and history of trips. Open your car’s onboard computer and follow the instructions in the navigation system to delete all the history and addresses before selling a car to car Wreckers near me.
- Connections: The internet is used by some cars to access things like traffic updates, weather updates, breakdown services, as well as media streaming from the internet via mobile devices. The best thing you can do when getting ready to sell, scrap, or donate your car to Car Wreckers South Auckland is to go into the connection settings on your smartphone and delete any pairings you have with it.
- Regardless of whether or not you have previously factory reset your car, this will not have cleared the connection between the car and your phone or tablet.
- Apps: With respect to using your car with apps, there are lots to choose from, such as navigation systems, dash cam viewers, and music players. If you are not going to use the apps outside of the car, it is really important that you remove them from your device.
- Factory Reset: There is a quick and easy method of removing data from your car if it has that feature, which is to perform a factory reset. By doing this, all the data and settings that are stored on the main hard drive will be wiped clean.
- If you do not know how to do this, you should consult your owner’s manual. There are a lot of owner’s manuals available online if you have lost yours. You simply have to do an internet search to find them.
- Bluetooth Connections: If you are going to clear the data from your car, make sure you remove any connection it may have with your phone or other electronic device before you start. The reason for this is that your data will not be uploaded again the next time they are within range!
- The easiest way to do this is to navigate to the connection settings on your car’s onboard computer, and then delete all the connections that are there.
- Contacts: There are a number of modern cars with inbuilt hard drives that will store your contacts for you for ease of hands-free calling, and sometimes even allow you to send text messages voice-activated.
- Your car’s computer allows you to remove your contacts by navigating to the contacts area/phone book and then deleting every single one of them.
- If you are selling your car to any top Car Wreckers South Auckland such as CashForScrapCars, make sure you don’t have your phone connected via Bluetooth, to avoid the possibility of having them re-upload.
- Media: The music or podcasts you have uploaded to your car should be removed if you have done so. If you are using a computerized car’s entertainment system or music system, you can do this via the system.
As soon as you have taken care of the data that is stored in your car, and its connection to other devices, you should cancel or transfer any subscriptions that you may have. This includes any subscription that has anything to do with your car, such as:
- Plans for data usage
- Hotspots with Wi-Fi
- Services that stream media
- Packages for map updates.
You should also cancel or transfer any breakdown cover or insurance you have as soon as you no longer have your car.
