Is this your old cell phone put your privacy at risk -
It seems that every few months a new batch of smartphones is released - Each offering better features than those that came before. Cell phone companies are pushing customers to upgrade their phones regularly, which means that most of us have got rid of at least a handful of phones over the years. At the same time, the data increasingly Personal are stored and transferred using cellular phones. No longer just phones, our mobile devices are used to store photos, send emails, connect via social media applications and surf the Internet. This makes your mobile phone a treasure trove for identity thieves who can glean a ton of personal data if they get their hands on it. When you decide to get rid of an old phone, if you trade in through your supplier or to sell it on eBay or Craigslist, one of the things most people make sure to do is run a "reset "which aims to erase all data and return to the original settings. In essence, it is supposed to be a time-warp to your phone ... but is it completely erase the data as it is supposed to?
Studies show factory reset does not completely remove the data
According to recent research conducted by both Cambridge University and Avast, the factory settings restore function is not as comprehensive as most of us would have hoped. Tests conducted at the University of Cambridge for more than 20 seconds of smartphones found that more than 80% of previously erased by a food factory was able to get there - it included texts, emails, photos and safety data for social networks. Similarly, Avast! ran the data recovery tools on more than 20 phones purchased used on eBay and restored more than 40,000 photos as well as contacts, emails and other files. Telephones used in both studies came from a variety of manufacturers, which means that it is a problem that spans smartphones as a whole, as well as other devices such as tablets.
The good news for Apple fans is that iPhones and iPads are also vulnerable to this problem that Android-based phones. ! testing of Avast were executed on Android phones than iPhones because Apple uses hardware and encryption keys encryption is overwritten during a wipe - which makes data recovery very difficult. Android phones are not as consistent. One cause of this safety issue is how data storage works by creating redundant copies of data stored to substantially prevent nothing is ever really deleted. It is perfect for storage and accessibility, but not so great for securely wipe your cell phone once you're done with it - and it makes them potentially vulnerable to attacks used phones for privacy
How can I be sure. The data is deleted my cell phone?
There are applications that you can purchase and download that provide further data wipe, but this process may take more time and effort than using your smartphone integrated factory reset. Most also warn that there is a chance they might not be able to completely erase all of your phone. A suggestion for how to at least be sure that vulnerable data is deleted is to fill the internal phone memory with "minor data" after performing a factory reset original. This could be a simple video that you take that makes no sense. Once you have done this, perform a factory reset again. It is, again, a lot of time, but you might consider your peace of mind is worth it if you plan to sell your old phone and do not want to jeopardize your privacy.
For more information on protecting your privacy, follow our blog protect against identity theft.
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