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Technology for cell phones, like that for computers,
televisions and even cars, is constantly changing, and
every month a new-and-improved version hits the
market. Not surprisingly, Americans upgrade their cell
phones often to take advantage of the latest gadgets
-- about every 18 months.
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Be careful what you input into your
cell phone. One company was able to
restore data that was thought to
have been erased, including credit
card numbers, sensitive company
information and private text
messages.
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Of course, bringing home a new phone means
getting rid of the old standby, but it's
harder than you may think to safely delete
all of your personal information. And, as a
recent Associated Press story reported,
getting rid of your old cell phone can be a
real threat to your privacy if you're not
careful.
Out With the Old, In With the New
"Most people toss their phones after
they're done; a lot of them give their old
phones to family members or friends,"
said Miro Kazakoff, a researcher of mobile
phone sales and trends at Compete Inc.,
Boston.
Increasing numbers of people are also opting
to sell their old phones online at auction
sites. Why not get some money back for your
phone? Because even if it looks like you've
deleted everything -- including if you've
reset the phone -- it's still possible for
your information -- your text messages, your
phone numbers, e-mails and more -- to be
found.
It takes some special software to do it,
yes, but the software is inexpensive, and
it's available easily over the Internet.
Over 27,000 Pages of Private Data Found
Trust Digital, based in McLean, Va., bought
10 phones from eBay in an effort to test
phone security tools. Software experts at
the company were able to get information
from nine out of 10 of the used phones,
including:
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Details of prescriptions
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E-mails about a company's $50,000
payment for a software license
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Another company's plans to get a
multimillion-dollar federal
transportation contract
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Credit card numbers and banking
passwords
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A conversation between a married man and
his mistress
The information they recovered was equal to
27,000 single-spaced pages.
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If you want to be really
sure that no one can
recover your cell phone's
data, the best bet may be
to physically destroy it.
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"We found just a mountain of
personal and corporate data,"
said Nick Magliato, Trust
Digital's chief executive.
How to Discard Your Phone AND
Protect Your Privacy
Data in phones and PDA devices
is stored in flash memory, which
means it's still there even if the
battery runs out or is removed.
Deleting information from flash
memory requires a "hard
reset," and every company's is
different. One cell phone required
holding down three buttons while
pressing a fourth on the back, while
others can only be done by
contacting the phone's manufacturer
or your wireless carrier service to
override the existing data with
zeros.
As the report found, simply
deleting or resetting the phone
may not be adequate. To be most
cautious, don't input any
sensitive information (e-mails,
text messages, Internet
transactions, etc.) into your cell
phone. You can also set a password
that will lock the phone and
prevent others from accessing it.
Some companies also offer options
that allow you to wipe out
information if the phone is
stolen, via a special e-mail code
sent to the phone.
Of course, if you really want to
be safe, rather than donating your
phone to a family member or, worse,
selling it on eBay, physically
destroy it so nothing can be
recovered.
One final, environmentally
friendly, option is to recycle
your phone by donating it to a
charity. WirelessRecycling.com
has a cell phone data eraser that
gives you instructions on how to
erase data from your phone, but
they don't guarantee that this
will make it unrecoverable.
Recommended Reading
Sources
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