Selling a car with a dash cam installed — or an SD card still in it — can expose months of your driving history to the new owner. Where you live, where you work, your regular routes, your driving behavior, and potentially footage of incidents you'd prefer to keep private are all on that card.
Here's what to do before handing over the keys.
What the Buyer Sees If You Don't Clean Up
A buyer who receives a car with the dash cam and SD card still installed can access:
- GPS route history — typically showing regular trips to your home, workplace, and other frequent locations
- Video footage of your face (if the camera is interior-facing or if you've been visible in the footage)
- Speed data and driving behavior from every recorded trip
- Any incidents, near-misses, or events flagged by the G-sensor
- If the camera is cloud-connected and still linked to your account, the buyer may not have access immediately — but they can see the app is still active and the account is linked
This is a genuine privacy concern, not a theoretical one. The new owner might not actively look for this data — but it's there and accessible if they do.
Before You Sell: The Privacy Checklist
Step 1: Remove or wipe the SD card. Remove the SD card from the camera. Format it in the camera (not your computer) to clear all footage. If you're keeping the camera, keep the card. If the camera stays with the car, a fresh-formatted blank card is acceptable to leave in it.
Step 2: Delink the camera from your cloud account.
- Open the Nexar app.
- Navigate to Settings → Camera.
- Tap the camera you're selling and select "Remove Camera."
- Confirm the removal. The camera is now delinked from your account and will no longer upload to your cloud storage.
If you skip this step, the camera remains linked to your account after the sale. The new owner cannot access your account, but the camera continues uploading footage from the new owner's drives to your account — a privacy issue in reverse.
Step 3: Delete cloud footage from the sold vehicle. After removing the camera from your account, check the Trips and Events sections in the app. Delete all footage from the vehicle before fully closing the account. Footage deleted from cloud storage is removed from Nexar's servers according to their data deletion policy.
Step 4: Factory reset the camera. A factory reset returns the camera to its out-of-box state — Wi-Fi networks, settings, and any cached data are cleared. Check your camera's manual for the factory reset procedure (usually holding the reset button for 15–20 seconds or a settings menu option).
If You're Keeping the Camera
If you're selling the car but keeping the dash cam for your next vehicle:
- Remove the camera and mount from the windshield (adhesive mounts can be removed with dental floss — slide it under the mount base to cut through the adhesive, then clean the glass with isopropyl alcohol to remove residue)
- Keep the SD card
- Keep your power cable or hardwire kit
- The camera remains linked to your account — no changes needed
If the Camera Stays With the Car
Leaving the camera with the car is a selling point — buyers appreciate not having to purchase their own camera. But handle the privacy steps first:
- Format the SD card (fresh start for the new owner)
- Delink from your cloud account
- Factory reset the camera
- Leave the power cable connected if hardwired — the new owner can set it up fresh with their own account
- Tell the buyer the camera is included, still works, and has been reset — they can download the Nexar app and pair it to their own account
This is a clean handoff that benefits both parties.
What If You Forgot and Already Sold the Car?
If you've already transferred the car and the camera is still linked to your account:
- Log into the Nexar app immediately.
- Remove the camera from your account via Settings → Camera → Remove.
- Delete any trips and events that were recorded on the sold vehicle from the cloud footage.
- Contact the buyer to let them know the camera has been removed from your account and they can set it up with their own account.
If footage from the new owner's drives has already uploaded to your account (they've been driving with the still-linked camera), this footage belongs to the new owner. Delete it from your account without reviewing it — reviewing footage from someone else's driving without their consent is the wrong approach, regardless of how it arrived in your account.
Buying a Used Car With a Dash Cam Installed
If you're the buyer in this scenario:
- Check whether the camera is still linked to the previous owner's account (the app will show as logged in from the camera's Wi-Fi if they didn't delink)
- Ask the seller to confirm the camera has been reset and the account delinked before you take possession
- If the seller forgot: request they remove the camera from their account remotely, then factory reset the camera yourself
- Format the SD card in the camera before your first drive — you don't want the previous owner's footage mixed with yours on the card
A camera with a clean reset and a fresh card is ready to set up with your own Nexar account immediately.