Renting a car? Don’t forget to unpair your phone afterwards

Some rental synchronise contacts from your phone and if you don't delete your phone from the car, the next renter may see them. – dpa

If you pair your smartphone with the infotainment system of a rented car, make sure that you delete your data before returning the car. If you don’t, personal data such as your contacts may be readable by others.

The easiest way to delete your data is to reset the car’s infotainment system to the factory settings, advises Germany’s ADAC car club.

Depending on the car model, you may have to dig deep into the settings menu to find this feature, but generally it should be available as an option.

If you can’t find it, the next step is to look for an option to unpair your smartphone, which is usually easier to find, ADAC says.

And if you used an app that was installed in the infotainment system, for example for streaming music from Spotify, don’t forget to log out of that service.

If you only want to use your phone for calls when travelling in the car, you can also refuse to transmit any data to the car’s infotainment system. You should see (and be able to deny) the request for authorisation on your smartphone once paired with the car. – dpa