Safeguarding Personal Identifiable Information (PII) after Smartphone Pairing with a Connected Vehicle

The integration of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) has significantly enhanced driving convenience, but it has also raised serious privacy concerns, particularly regarding the personal identifiable information (PII) stored on infotainment systems. Recent advances in connected and autonomous vehicle control, such as multi-agent system (MAS)-based hierarchical architectures and privacy-preserving strategies for mixed-autonomy platoon control, underscore the increasing complexity of privacy management within these environments. Rental cars with infotainment systems pose substantial challenges, as renters often fail to delete their data, leaving it accessible to subsequent renters. This study investigates the risks associated with PII in connected vehicles and emphasizes the necessity of automated solutions to ensure data privacy. We introduce the Vehicle Inactive Profile Remover (VIPR), an innovative automated solution designed to identify and delete PII left on infotainment systems. The efficacy of VIPR is evaluated through surveys, hands-on experiments with rental vehicles, and a controlled laboratory environment. VIPR achieved a 99.5% success rate in removing user profiles, with an average deletion time of 4.8 s or less, demonstrating its effectiveness in mitigating privacy risks. This solution highlights VIPR as a critical tool for enhancing privacy in connected vehicle environments, promoting a safer, more responsible use of connected vehicle technology in society.