Wiping mobile phones

[Red17]

I have a couple of old mobiles that I was going to donate to a local charity shop, but was wondering about the best way to ensure that any personal data is wiped.

What is the best way to go about this?

 

[T4tomo]

I have a couple of old mobiles that I was going to donate to a local charity shop, but was wondering about the best way to ensure that any personal data is wiped.

What is the best way to go about this?

"reset to factory settings" - that wipes everything. google how to for your particular phone.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I have a couple of old mobiles that I was going to donate to a local charity shop, but was wondering about the best way to ensure that any personal data is wiped.

What is the best way to go about this?

Yes factory reset should do it. It will probably be in your settings menu. I'm doing the same thing, but just to be sure I'll Uninstall my banking apps first, and remove cards from my wallet. Probably not necessary but will make me feel better.

 

[T4tomo]

Yes factory reset should do it. It will probably be in your settings menu. I'm doing the same thing, but just to be sure I'll Uninstall my banking apps first, and remove cards from my wallet. Probably not necessary but will make me feel better.

you'll probably find that the factory reset removes any additional apps you installed anyway.

 

[Dave7]

I have a couple of old mobiles that I was going to donate to a local charity shop, but was wondering about the best way to ensure that any personal data is wiped.

What is the best way to go about this?

Good question.....I have the same problem.

 

[Dogtrousers]

If you restore to factory settings that should be OK but if you are risk averse/ paranoid/ an international criminal then once you've done that there are apps that can get rid of data hanging around in free space. Just Google something like wipe android app. Whether they work or whether they put all the data they find up for sale on the dark web I don't know.

If it's an apple phone you have to go to apple HQ and place the phone on the shrine to Steve Jobs. One of the priests will help you.

 

[Cycleops]

A reset will wipe all your personal information whether Apple or Android and return it to the state of a new phone
Simples.

 

[Drago]

Having worked in hi tec crime and seen what can be extracted from a factory clean phone...

Wipe it with a lump hammer.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Whether they work or whether they put all the data they find up for sale on the dark web I don't know.

That's what I was just going to say. And why I'll leave mine at factory reset. It would be a very clever way to harvest data, from people trusting an App to delete their data!

 

[markemark]

Having worked in hi tec crime and seen what can be extracted from a factory clean phone...

Wipe it with a lump hammer.

Indeed. Factory resets just reset the file allocation flags. The data is there until it is overwritten. The OS can’t see it but someone with the correct software can see it.
Nobody will be able to use it…apart from very dedicated technicians who can restore wiped phones. It’s why old hard drives are physically destroyed for complete security.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Having worked in hi tec crime and seen what can be extracted from a factory clean phone...

Wipe it with a lump hammer.

In my long and varied career of pretending to know about things I spent a while pretending to know about digital evidence management/chain of custody. Some of it was a real eye opener, but most of it was very dull so I drifted off to pretend to know about something else.

 

[Dirk]

Having worked in hi tec crime and seen what can be extracted from a factory clean phone...

Wipe it with a lump hammer.

And burn it...

 

[vickster]

If iPhone, make sure you fully sign out of your iCloud account before Erase and reset

 

[Red17]

Just tried a factory reset on a couple of Samsung phones, and it's not clearing all of the apps or data. There is probably nothing too sensitive on there, but may have a think about the club 🔨 option just to be safe

 

[vickster]

Just tried a factory reset on a couple of Samsung phones, and it's not clearing all of the apps or data. There is probably nothing too sensitive on there, but may have a think about the club 🔨 option just to be safe

Samsung bloatware? Not sure how/if you remove. All phones come with standard apps on the phone (varies by manufacturer/model)