Used Smartphones Retain Loads Of Personal Data @McAfeeConsumer

29 Aug 2012 · 2 min

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In a CBS 5 ConsumerWatch segment, reporter Julie Watts highlights the privacy risks associated with selling or discarding used smartphones. McAfee cyber‑security expert Robert Siciliano purchased about 30 used devices from eBay and Craigslist—including Android phones, iPhones, and BlackBerrys—and discovered that many still contained personal files such as PDFs, documents, photos, videos, and even pornography. While factory‑reset procedures generally cleared data on BlackBerrys and iPhones, Android devices—particularly the Motorola Droid—often retained recoverable information despite a reset. The segment stresses that personal data (contacts, passwords, banking, social media) can be harvested for identity theft. Practical advice includes removing SIM and SD cards, clearing cache, and understanding the limitations of factory resets, especially on Android phones, before selling or recycling a device.

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Were you planning on ditching your old smartphone for that new iPhone 5? May not be as easy as you think to erase your current cell phone's memory. CBS 5 ConsumerWatch reporter Julie Watts with the steps you should take to erase your digital footprint. Basically my whole life is on this phone.
With memory sizes growing, smartphones today can carry as much of our personal information as we used to store on our laptop or computer.
There's a lot of passwords. Checking account. All the contacts, all my phone numbers. Like my bank account, like my Facebook is all on there.
Just some of the personal data McAfee cyber expert Robert Siciliano was looking into when he scrolled through the vast smartphone offerings on eBay and Craigslist and bought 30 used devices.
I bought Androids, iPhones, and BlackBerrys. People left all their information there— PDFs, Word documents, text files, Excel files, home videos, photos, and a lot of pornography, actually. We found their entire digital lives, enough information to either steal their identities or take over existing identities.
That, despite the best efforts Despite the best efforts of those selling the phones to wipe them clean.
I'll delete the cache, make sure I take the SIM card out.
Removing the SIM card and SD card from the phone is vital, but they're not the only critical storage areas. Cell phone manufacturers will tell you to clear your personal information by restoring factory settings, which Siciliano says does work pretty well with BlackBerrys and iPhones.
But with the Android phones, the Motorola Droid specifically, Even when a factory reset was done, we still found data.
Enough data to easily pull off identity theft.
If they're selling that device for like $50, is it potentially worth $50 to sell your identity? I don't know.
Now Siciliano points out they didn't use specialized scanning software to find the data left on these phones. Rather, his cyber technician used basic tools available online. For more information, head to cbsSF.com/consumerwatch.