“In a world where personal information seems to be leaked daily, how can we protect the privacy of our customers?”

The Best Practice

Establish procedures to ensure customers’ personal information is secure, preferably in a centralized location such as an office that can also be locked. Personal information distributed to sales personnel could be marked “DO NOT COPY” and collected at the end of an employee’s shift. If client information is stored electronically, it’s recommended dealers have security measures in place to protect the information.

Information Stored in Vehicles Traded-in

To help protect the privacy of customers, dealers can establish a process to remove personal information that may be stored in trade-ins, including, but not limited to:

• deleting garage door codes
• deleting the vehicle’s stored phonebook/contracts (and any other information that has been paired with a cellphone)
• deleting saved addresses/searches from the navigation system
• removing documents from the glovebox, door pockets and other storage compartments that might contain personal information

Remember, personal information can only be collected, used and retained in accordance with applicable laws.