Keep Your Home Burglar-Free with GPS Safety

By DriverSide Staff
You might not realize it, but your GPS system could be the key a potential burglar needs to get inside your home. Think about it, once someone has their hands on your car keys, all they have to do is fire up the car and hit the home button on the navigation to find your house. It’s a situation made worse by the popularity of Homelink systems, which allow garage access at the push of a button. And from there, all your belongings are fair game. Worst of all, you’ve unknowingly done most of the legwork yourself.

We’re not trying to scare you, but there are a few precautions you can take to ensure you don’t lose your car and your valuables in one fell swoop. True enough, modern cars are difficult to steal thanks to the ignition immobilizers embedded within modern electronic keys, but if you are pick pocketed or drop your keys, those remote lockers make it incredibly easy to find.

First off, we recommend not programming your actual home into the navigation system. Something a few blocks away – the grocery store, gas station, local school – will work just as well to get you home and won’t compromise your safety should a car thief attempt to track down your home. Don’t program in the neighbor’s house, because a garage door opener is all it takes to figure out where you live. For this same reason, we also recommend not leaving your vehicle registration in the car, but rather carrying it on you.

You should make sure and clear all of this information out of the system before selling a car, too. Wipe out any GPS information you may have saved and clear out your Homelink garage door opener so that the next owner of your vehicle doesn’t end up gaining access to your home.





Track Your Service Records
Get Recall Alerts
Get Updated Value Estimates on Your Car.
Go to a Review