New Jersey dealerships now have to clean more than just the upholstery, center console and cargo area of used vehicles.

Privacy4Cars pointed out to Auto Remarketing this week that Gov. Phil Murphy on Jan. 16 signed into law the Motor Vehicle Data Deletion Act. It’s associated with how a vehicle’s infotainment system can capture personal information from a smartphone when connected via Bluetooth.

According to Privacy4Cars, the law that went into immediate effect requires:

Whenever a motor vehicle dealer takes possession of a motor vehicle from a consumer for the purpose of resale or lease, the motor vehicle dealer shall offer to delete the consumer’s personal information from the motor vehicle’s computer system in the motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, navigation history, paired phones, and garage door codes, by performing data clearing protocols in accordance with the Guidelines for Media Sanitization developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology using techniques specified by the vehicle manufacturer to overwrite data or by using a menu option to reset the device to original factory settings

Privacy4Cars said dealers now incur a civil penalty of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses.

Privacy4Cars also explained the law provides dealers the opportunity to “charge a reasonable fee for services performed in connection with the requirements of this section. The dealer shall disclose the fee to the consumer prior to performing the service and shall advise the consumer that the consumer may attempt to delete the personal information themselves or through another vendor.”

And Privacy4Cars is happy to be that vendor for dealers in the Garden State and other nearby locations.

The company offers the multi-patented AutoCleared solution, which can manage, execute and certify the deletion of consumer personal information stored in vehicles.

“We urge you to immediately contact your new jersey locations to ensure they have the proper processes, safeguards, and compliance monitoring systems necessary comply with this law. If you do business with New jersey residents in neighboring states, it may be advisable to extend the same practices to those stores, as well,” Privacy4Cars said.

For more details, go to https://privacy4cars.com or send a message to info@privacy4cars.com.