Tech Tips, 1015 GABJ, Vol. 39 No. 5. 64
| Author | Blake A. Klinkner Crowley Fleck PLLP (Cheyenne, WY) ABA Young Lawyers Division District Representative for Wyoming and Colorado |
| Position | Vol. 39 5 Pg. 64 |
Blake A. Klinkner Crowley Fleck PLLP (Cheyenne, WY) ABA Young Lawyers Division District Representative for Wyoming and Colorado
Don’t Let Your Rental Car Steal Your Data
Perhaps in our lifetime, we will reach a point in time where we will no longer need to drive our own vehicles – our vehicles will drive us. Indeed, driverless vehicles are already on our roads. Ford Motors recently announced that it will put fleets of self-driving taxis onto American roads within the next five years,1 and a very ambitious autonomous vehicle testing program is already underway in Pittsburgh, where the city and Uber have formed a partnership to make Pittsburgh the birthplace of America’s autonomous vehicle revolution.2 However, it still seems likely that at least for the foreseeable future, we will have to continue driving ourselves around town, including when we obtain rental cars for work and leisure in foreign locales.
Even though it is unlikely that your next rental car will be smart enough to chauffeur you around town, it is likely that the next rental vehicle you will drive will be smart enough to steal the data from your cell phone or other mobile device. In fact, there is a good chance that the next rental vehicle you will obtain at the airport will already have data stored from previous drivers, including personal contacts, internet browsing activity, text messages, and driving locations. Such data may become uploaded into the vehicle when the renter connects a mobile device, such as by plugging a cell phone into the USB port for the purpose of charging the device, web browsing, making hands-free calls, or connecting to navigation systems. Unfortunately, such data may be accessed by rental agency personnel or subsequent vehicle users including criminals who are quickly realizing that rental cars may be a lucrative source of data from business travelers who are not protecting their clients’ data and of vacationers who may still be away from home.
What are some of the steps you should take to protect your data from being inadvertently stored by your future rental vehicles? • Do not connect your phone, laptop, tablet, or other mobile device to the vehicle through a USB or similar port. Many drivers will connect their devices to the vehicle in order to take advantage of entertainment or communication features, but this may...
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