RICHMOND, Va. -

CarLotz said Friday it has partnered with Privacy4Cars to add another layer of data-privacy protection for consumers consigning or selling their vehicles through the consignment-to-retail used-car marketplace.

CarLotz has used Privacy4Cars technology to process all vehicles at its locations, scrubbing personal information captured by the vehicle.

Privacy4Cars builds privacy and compliance solutions for clients to delete personal information from vehicles.

Cars can capture personal information when the user connect their phone with the vehicle through Bluetooth or USB. And if the vehicle has GPS or telematics, that personal information can be stored, as well.

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

That’s where CarLotz’s work with Privacy4Cars comes into play.

“The partnership with Privacy4Cars allows us to exceed expectations and deliver on our promise to provide best in class customer service to our guests,” Foley said. “Privacy, safety and security should never be a concern when selling a car and, whether consigning or selling directly to us, CarLotz is proud to lead the way.”

Insights from Privacy4Car show that more than four of five vehicles sold in 2021 contained personal data. That underscores the importance of this type of partnership.

“Consumers are increasingly choosing to do business with companies who care about their privacy and safeguard their information,” Privacy4Cars founder Andrea Amico said.

“Cars today collect a lot of data from previous owners and their family members; data that should not be sold with the cars,” Amico said. “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.”