Privacy4Cars established a new data partnership with AutoIMS to provide visibility to consignors and auctions on the removal of non-public personal information previous owners and drivers may have left in consigned vehicles’ on-board systems, including previous destinations, home address, garage door codes, contact lists, call logs, text messages, device identifiers, and more.

If auctions adopt the Privacy4Cars technology to delete personal data from vehicles in remarketing inventory, AutoIMS users, at no additional charge, will be able to monitor and have metrics on the deletion activity, including  whether a data deletion extended warranty is applied, according to the companies.

This cooperative effort to stem the dissemination of potentially-damaging privacy information is largely credited to the work of the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) Technology, Standards, and Compliance Committees, according to Privay4Cars.

“The issue of vehicles showing up at auctions while still containing the personal data of consumers keeps coming up in discussions with our consignor and auction partners.” said Keely Smith, director of business services at AutoIMS and Co-Chair of the IARA Compliance Committee. “With more consignors requiring the deletion of this data and more auctions starting to offer the service through Privacy4Cars, we are confident this partnership is a big step forward in establishing a common process and providing visibility and trackability across the entire remarketing ecosystem.”

A growing number of privacy, security, and data disposal laws are being passed in many states – with significant implications for vehicle controllers and processors.

“Our tool makes it easy for auctions to offer the deletion service as a turnkey solution, but equally important is the fact that our entire platform has been built to give consignors detailed compliance records by default and by design for every VIN,” said Andrea Amico, founder of Privacy4Cars. “The AutoIMS philosophy of visibility and accountability in the automotive wholesale industry makes them a perfect fit with our mission to deliver a structured, repeatable, and auditable process that can meet the increasing legal and reputational privacy challenges vehicles pose. Consignors now have a single place to go to – across all their auction locations and channels – to prove their policies to delete private data are being consistently applied: this is what mitigates their risk and sets us apart from alternative approaches.”

Other industry professionals involved in this new service also spoke to its significance.

“Being able to consistently, efficiently, and effectively help our consignors by leveraging Privacy4Cars will be that much more convenient with the AutoIMS integration,” said Matt Arias, who co-chairs the Standards Committee at the National Auto Auction Association (NAAA) and with the IARA.

Americas Auto Auction, where Arias is the AVP of operations, recently announced a partnership with Privacy4Cars and is the first major chain to offer consignors an extended warranty on their data deletion service to further limit their legal exposure from possible fines and lawsuits.