NJ bill addresses risks of connecting your phone to a rental car

⚫ After a rental return, info from your phone can still be stored with the vehicle

⚫ NJ lawmakers have tweaked a measure that aims to get this info deleted

⚫ The responsibility would fall on the driver

New Jersey lawmakers have significantly weakened a proposal that aims to protect your personal information.

Under the revised version, it's still on the customer to wipe any trace of themselves from the digital system of a rental car, after they've connected a phone or other device to the car's entertainment system.

The measure, advanced by the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee on Oct. 24, says that rental car companies need to post a notice at their "return area" advising renters to unpair personal devices from the vehicle they're returning. The bill says the notice could be posted on the internet or in the rental agreement.

For a first offense, violators face a $500 fine, according to the bill. The fine is $1,000 for subsequent offenses.

The original bill

Under the original measure, which was introduced in February, rental car companies would have been required to delete the personal information of one customer before letting another customer get behind the wheel.

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"I actually preferred the version of the bill before the amendments," said Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, R-Sussex.

Fantasia was sitting in for another lawmaker on the committee. She voted the bill through but suggested it doesn't have much teeth.

"I think responsibility still should stay with the provider of the service," she said.

David Smith, with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, told lawmakers that it can be "extremely complicated" for companies to delete a customer's information every time a vehicle is returned.

"We are not expecting the rental car company to be savvy, but you're expecting my 78-year-old father, your 85-year-old grandmother to be savvy," Fantasia said.

As of now, a Senate version of the measure still puts the onus on rental car companies to ensure that one customer's info isn't passed on to the next.

Information such as one's name, or the places they've traveled, may be stored in a vehicle's memory, even when a device is no longer connected. Generally, information such as a contact list or other personal data would only be accessible when the original user's device is still in close range to the vehicle.

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