Factory Resets on Android Smartphones Don't Fully Wipe Data
Sellers of secondhand Android phones always do a factory reset on their devices before selling them, but does it really remove all previous sensitive data? A new study says that it actually does not.
Researchers from the Cambridge University estimated that around 500 million Android smartphones still had data left over even after a factory reset, while more than 630 million devices did not completely wipe off files and other data from microSD cards.
Recovered Data
Ross Anderson and Laurent Simon tested 21 secondhand Android smartphones from Samsung, Google, Motorola, HTC and LG. The phones ran Android versions 2.3 Gingerbread up to 4.3 Jelly Bean. After doing a factory reset on the phones, the pair still managed to collect parts of data from the phones, according to Tech Times.
The supposedly wiped data included login information from Whats App and Facebook. It also contained some photo, video, SMS and email files from the previous users of the phone.
- See more at: http://www.biztekmojo.com/00683/factory-resets-android-smartphones-dont-fully-wipe-data#sthash.aN5o24cK.dpuf
Sellers of secondhand Android phones always do a factory reset on their devices before selling them, but does it really remove all previous sensitive data? A new study says that it actually does not.
Researchers from the Cambridge University estimated that around 500 million Android smartphones still had data left over even after a factory reset, while more than 630 million devices did not completely wipe off files and other data from microSD cards.
Recovered Data
Ross Anderson and Laurent Simon tested 21 secondhand Android smartphones from Samsung, Google, Motorola, HTC and LG. The phones ran Android versions 2.3 Gingerbread up to 4.3 Jelly Bean. After doing a factory reset on the phones, the pair still managed to collect parts of data from the phones, according to Tech Times.
The supposedly wiped data included login information from Whats App and Facebook. It also contained some photo, video, SMS and email files from the previous users of the phone.
- See more at: http://www.biztekmojo.com/00683/factory-resets-android-smartphones-dont-fully-wipe-data#sthash.aN5o24cK.dpuf
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