Common sense dictates that you must wipe all data from your old smartphone before you sell it, so that the next person to own the phone can’t steal your information or commit identify theft. You’d think that a straightforward factory reset does the trick, but a recent study by Avast proves otherwise.
A typical factory reset simply restores a device back to the default settings it came with as set by the manufacturer. In addition to fixing software, malware and performance issues, a factory reset removes all data, apps and other changes made by the user. However, the data is not so much removed as hidden. The information remains intact; it just looks like it is deleted because the factory reset has simply cleared the data index – the structure or directory that allows an operating system to locate files or data in the storage.
So, should you be worried about this lack of secure data erasure? According to security software vendor Avast, you should be. In their study, the effectiveness of Android’s factory reset option in wiping data can be easily nullified by simple recovery software and low-level analysis that anyone can easily acquire. In fact, the company bought a number of Android smartphones from eBay and recovered a plethora of photos, emails, and text messages. Some of the photos even include nude people and intimate moments. Imagine the horror of seeing your naked glory all over the Internet, just because you didn’t properly erase it from the old smartphone that you sold.
Smartphones aren’t the only ones affected; factory reset on many tablets, computers and other electronic devices don’t securely wipe sensitive data either. If it were up to Avast, you should buy the company’s advanced wiping software or deletion tool. Or, you can enable data encryption – a native feature in Android smartphones – before you perform a factory reset.