A number of precautions will be helpful if you intend to sell your cell phone or pass it on for repair to avoid the possibility of someone being able to access your personal information.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has cautioned that the mere execution of “Factory Reset” may not always be enough to ensure the security of personal information as with the help of modern software, it can be recovered.
It is recommended that users take additional security measures when handing over their devices to make sure their personal information is safe. One should take the following steps before selling a phone or handing it over for repairs:
Do a factory reset on the cell phone
When giving your phone to someone else, be sure to factory reset your phone to remove personal data and reset the phone to its original settings.
Before resetting the phone, however, make sure that all important data has been backed up. A factory reset erases all data such as photos, videos, applications and personal settings.
Check the Phone’s Encryption
Check that your phone is completely secured prior to a factory reset. Among the security features in today’s smartphones, data encryption is crucial and important to ensure that personal information cannot be accessed by any unauthorised party.
If encryption is used, then you will need the correct authentication to access the information that has been stored, if you do not have it.
Overwrite the Data
As another safety measure, you can copy some of the non-sensitive photos or videos to your phones following a factory reset and once more reset the phone.
This process can make it more difficult to access previously stored data. The users should make sure that no personal or sensitive information is transferred back to the device during this process, however.
Click Sign Out of All Accounts to log out of all accounts.
Before passing in your phone sign out of and delete all accounts connected to the phone (Google, Apple and Samsung accounts).
Deleting these accounts can safeguard personal information and make it harder for potential access to services linked to these accounts. Once signed out, factory reset to finish.
Back Up Important Data
Make sure to back up any important photos, videos, contact numbers, documents and other files before resetting your phone.
Users may save information to Google Drive, iCloud, a memory card or a computer to prevent the loss of essential information.
These measures can minimise the potential for personal data to be accessed by unauthorised third parties prior to the device being sold or given to someone for repair.