Bought a new cell phone? Be VERY careful disposing of your old one!

[thewayne]

A recent study found half of used cell phones examined still contained personal information, such as: social network logins, phone books, call logs, text messages, etc. Stuff that I'd rather not got out. Most phones have good reset settings if you poke through the menu settings enough, it took a bit of work to find out how to deal with our Motorla Razr's last November when we switched to Verizon.

http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/half-of-used-phones-still-contain-personal-info-24600

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/03/24/040255/Half-of-Used-Phones-Still-Contain-Personal-Info

Comments

[silveradept]

I always want to make sure everything's transferred, and then scrub the last device before starting with the new one. I'm more worried that someone at the station where I get the new one is going to make a copy of the PIM while it's transferring.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I plan on switching to an iPhone later this year, and when I do I won't transfer my phone book: I have it all in Apple's Contacts program, so the first time that I sync it with my laptop it'll be taken care of.

[silveradept]

That's handy. One good thing about the smartphone revolution is that it's getting easier to move all your data, even if the price plans keep going up.