Customer DOB and driver's license (encrypted)
How date of birth and driver's license numbers are stored encrypted, where your team sees them, and where they never appear.
Two customer fields are extra-sensitive: date of birth and driver's license number. AutoDealer.io encrypts both before they're written to the database, so they're protected even if someone got a copy of the raw data.
What's encrypted
- Date of birth and driver's license number are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM.
- They are stored as scrambled text — anyone reading the raw database sees ciphertext (it starts with
enc:v1:), not the real value. - Everything else (name, email, phone, address, and the driver's license state) is stored as normal text.
You don't do anything special to turn this on. You type the date of birth and license number into the customer form like any other field. The encryption and decryption happen automatically behind the scenes — your team always sees the real values.
Where your team sees these fields
- Go to Customers and click a customer's row to open their record.
- The Date of birth appears under the Contact section. The License number and State appear under the Driver license section.
- Click Edit to change them. The form pre-fills the real values, so you can update them. The fields are labeled Date of birth, Driver license number, and DL state (2 letters).
These values are shown in full to anyone on your team who can open the customer record — they are not masked or dotted-out in the app. The protection is encryption at rest (the stored data), not on-screen hiding. Only give customer access to people who should see this information.
Where these fields never appear
- Your public storefront never shows date of birth or driver's license — those fields aren't part of any public page.
- Marketplace feeds (Google, Facebook, etc.) carry vehicle data only, never customer PII.
- The customer list (the main Customers table) shows name, email, phone, city, and state only — never date of birth or license number.
Searching and clearing
- The search box on the Customers page matches name, email, phone, city, and state. You cannot search by date of birth or license number — those fields are encrypted, so they can't be matched in a text search.
- To clear a value, open Edit, delete what's in the field, and click Save changes. A blank field is saved with no value.
FAQ
Are date of birth and driver's license masked on screen?
No. They're stored encrypted, but when you open a customer record your team sees the full values. The encryption protects the stored data, not the on-screen display. Limit who has access to customer records accordingly.
Why can't I search customers by driver's license number?
Because that field is encrypted, the system can't match it in a text search. The Customers search box matches name, email, phone, city, and state instead.
Is the driver's license state encrypted too?
No — only the license number and the date of birth are encrypted. The DL state (the two-letter state) and the rest of the address are stored as normal text.
Do these fields show up anywhere public?
Never. Date of birth and driver's license number are internal only. They are not on your storefront and not in any marketplace feed.
What if I leave date of birth or license number blank?
That's fine — they're optional. A blank field is saved with no value, and nothing is encrypted for it.