Dealer Loaner Car Data Sharing

A short while ago, I was given a loaner car by the dealer. The car itself was nothing really special. However, when poking around the multi-purpose computer, I came across two things:

- a navigation system full of addresses, including some marked home and work
- the bluetooth audio hookup, with a full call log and full set of someone's contact list

I took a picture of the info, but have since decided to delete it. I called the dealer to explain what I found, and they didn't seem to understand why anyone would care.

So I did what any person would do, searched the internet for all addresses and contact info. To respect the privacy of the innocent, I'll just state here's what I found:

- someone's "home" is worth $4 million.
- someone's "fb" is a man named Taylor, assuming "Taylor Fxxk Bud" means what I think it means. Could also be a female Taylor.
- someone's "work" is One State Street in Boston.
- someone made 23 calls over 2 days to an international number (011-86-21 prefix). Your curiosity can figure out the country and city.
- someone made a nav system trip of 0.8 miles.
- 3 different iPhone's were connected, with the person's full name as the name of the phone (Jane Doe's iPhone, etc). Also, all three were female.
- the full contact list was over 7 screens long (I got tired of scrolling with silly hockey-puck joystick thing).

I think the lesson is to clear your data when you return the car. It's not obvious if the dealer will do it for you or not. I imagine this is the same for rental cars, but I don't know for sure.

originally published at wiki.lewman.is