CarLotz, a consignment-to-retail used vehicle marketplace, announced Jan. 28 it has launched a nationwide partnership with Privacy4Cars.

Timed to National Data Privacy Week, the announcement is another step the company has taken to offer protections, including the secure removal of all personal information captured by the vehicle, to guests who choose to sell or consign their car at any of their nationwide hub locations.

According to Privacy4Cars, over four out of five cars sold last year contained personal data. "The partnership with Privacy4Cars allows us to exceed expectations and deliver on our promise to provide best in class customer service to our guests," said John Foley, Chief Operating Officer of CarLotz, in a news release. "Privacy, safety and security should never be a concern when selling a car, whether consigning or selling directly to us."

Personal information is captured by a vehicle when users connect a phone via Bluetooth, USB, or — if the vehicle is equipped with GPS or telematics — simply drive it around town. While there are DIY ways to delete information stored in the infotainment system and other modules of the vehicle, including phone records, detailed whereabouts, garage door codes, text messages (often including financial and medical information), biometrics, driver behavior tracking and unique identifiers, the truth is there are tens of thousands of different vehicle-specific procedures required to ensure complete removal of one's personal information.

"Most people would never sell or turn-in their mobile phone without erasing all its personal information," Foley said. "Your vehicle's computer often contains the same personal information and shouldn't be transferred to a new owner without securely removing that data."

Vehicles at all CarLotz hubs have been processed using Privacy4Cars technology. Over the coming months, CarLotz will add a visual icon to sales data, in hub and online, for all vehicles available.

"Consumers are increasingly choosing to do business with companies who care about their privacy and safeguard their information," said Andrea Amico, founder of Privacy4Cars. "Cars today collect a lot of data from previous owners and their family members; data that should not be sold with the cars. That's why this partnership between Privacy4Cars and CarLotz is so important -- together we can offer the peace of mind their customers deserve and, by doing so, make CarLotz their first choice on where to do business."

Privacy4Cars is a tech company focused on creating privacy and compliance solutions for vehicles, to offer Personal Information (PI) deletion across CarLotz' consigned inventory.