Cell phone Master Reset isn't enough

[shesulsa]

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Selling your old phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your diaries. All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.

A popular practice among sellers, resetting the phone, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet.

Call me paranoid, but I've always taken the time to delete every single message, every single contact before the master reset. I'm not even sure if THAT'S enough.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Maybe use an electromagnet?

 

[FearlessFreep]

When I moved I changed phone numbers
but kept the same phone. This required just changing out the chip/card inside. The old one I cut into little pieces.

Not sure if this would work with larger or more sophisticated devices.

 

[Rich Parsons]

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Call me paranoid, but I've always taken the time to delete every single message, every single contact before the master reset. I'm not even sure if THAT'S enough.

Paranoid! Ok I have called you that.

I have never sold back an old phone.

 

[Ping898]

Since I run my phone until it is no longer functional....this has never been a problem for me....

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Paranoid! Ok I have called you that.

I have never sold back an old phone.

I do not sell them back either!:ultracool

Brian R. VanCise
www.instinctiveresponsetraining.com

 

[OUMoose]

I'd just as well incinerate mine. Why would you trade in your phone anyway? It's not like they cost as much as a car (yet).

 

[Carol]

I keep an old one in my glove box with its charger for emergencies. Others I give to a local women's shelter.

As per FCC Lifeline regulations, all U.S. cell phones (activated or not) must be able to make a 911 call.