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Half of Used Phones Still Contain Personal Info
jhernik writes "More than half of second-hand mobile phones still contain personal information of the previous owner, posing a risk of identity fraud. A study found 247 pieces of personal data stored on handsets and SIM cards purchased from eBay and second-hand electronics shops. The information ranged from credit card numbers to bank account details, photographs, email address and login details to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. According to data security firm CPP, 81 percent of previous owners claim they have wiped personal data from their mobile phones and SIM cards before selling them. However, deleting the information manually is 'a process that security experts acknowledge leaves the data intact and retrievable.'"
Phone manufacturers and telcos are making the wiping much harder than it needs to be. I guess they do that because they don't make any money from you selling your phone second hand. This is especially true for iPhones and Android. Are Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 really the only phones that have complete wipe feature built-in? I dont even mean the usual delete, but actual multiple times overwriting. While it's more important for business users (and why RIM and Microsoft pay more attention to such details), it's something casual people need too. It needs to be on other phones than business ones too. But like it is, you usually get what you pay for - if you pay for professional software companies like Microsoft, you get products that have been though over and made secure. If you get something amateurish, well, that's what you get. The kind of things business users need are the first things forgotten in those devices and software products.