Most of us own a smartphone but after few years for one or the other reason we are obsessed with it . So we plan to give up our old device to someone at some price , in this 21 st century you also know the Important and Precious think in this is “your Data “. Fortunately in our country people are very conciseness about their Data and Privacy and , its your right and you should have it . And Many of the users sell their smartphone by doing “factory Reset” and they think their data is removed from mobile device but they are wrong as their Data Still remain as this is because they do a soft reset and data of user is still their in device and if it get into wrong hands one can take your device to “Data Recovery Laboratory”. I think most of you heard this as most of have once taken your computer HDD for recovery Data file in case of Physical damage but I thing most of you would be unaware of that from your old smartphone , and other storage devices and also now I am going to tell that can make you suprise and worried many of us visit stores and cyber caff to get copy* of our personal document related Identification, academic performance,, and certain confidental from Copy Machine ( we speak Xerox but correct term is copy). And most instution , Industry, organisaton , Adminstrative offices throw out Copy Machine and even Printer as they get old as they don’t work they dont completely destory and this is not Good as ” Once a Document are copied or Printed the Printer and copy machine store data in their chip which can be recover in Future” But this whole process is very costly of recovery . And three years back report came describe the thinks here by which i want to share with you the research revealed methods that can dig up incredibly sensitive data from supposedly wiped phones, including the login token used to sign into Google accounts. The core of the problem is flash memory, which limits how often a given block of memory can be overwritten. As a result, a factory reset will often designate data as logically deleted (that is, available to be overwritten) without actually overwriting it, so as to prolong the life of the hard drive. Using a variety of database recovery tools, two Cambridge researchers were able to scan the wiped phones for portions of the hard drive that had been designated as logically empty, recovering photos, passwords, and chat logs. In theory, the factory reset is supposed to wipe all that data, but thanks to the quirks of flash memory, it wasn’t being wiped all the way. The quick fix for this is simple: encrypt the data on your phone before you get rid of it. (You can find the option at Settings > Security > Encrypt Phone, for any Android version since 3.0.) Adrian Ludwig, the lead engineer for Android security, recommended preemptive disk encryption for anyone giving up their phone. Disk encryption mostly protects against attackers with physical access to your device, so it’s often overlooked in favor of network-based security measures like two-factor authentication — but for this attack, it’s the single most important protection you can have. It’s not complete protection, since it’s possible to use brute force to crack the simpler disk-encryption passwords, but the more complex a password you choose, the more difficult and expensive it will be for attackers to break through.
“If you plan to resell or discard your device and you haven’t already, encrypt it and then perform a factory reset,” Ludwig said, when asked for comment on the Cambridge paper.
HOW to properly wipe data ?
- Go to Settings
- Select System > Advanced > Reset options
- You will be presented with three choices. “Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth” is sometimes useful if you’re having trouble with connectivity. “Reset app preferences” will restore all of your app and notification defaults, among other things. Neither of these will delete the data on your phone. That’s the job of the third choice, “Erase all data (factory reset),” and that’s the one you’re going to select.
- You’ll get a warning screen reminding you that your data that will be erased, along with all the accounts you’re currently signed into. Select “Reset phone.”
- If you have a PIN or some other security setup, you’ll be asked to enter it
- You’ll get another screen asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Are you sure? Then hit the “Erase everything” button.
That’s it! The process usually takes only two or three minutes. Your phone will reboot and begin with the usual opening questions, such as language, account, network, etc. Once you see those, you’ll know that it’s worked.
There are a few things to be aware of. First, if you’ve got a Samsung phone, you’re going to be asked for your Samsung account password before you can reset (provided you’ve created one and added it to the phone).
If you’ve got an Android phone that is using an earlier version of the OS (say, before version 8), the reset may, after it reboots, ask for your login. This could be awkward if you’ve already sent the phone to someone else. As a result, if you’ve got an older phone, it’s a good idea to turn off your screen lock (by going to Security > Screen lock and selecting “None”) and deleting your Google account (which you’ll find at Settings > Account > Google) before you start the reset.
There is evidence that some data may remain on a phone even after it’s been reset. To be extra careful, you can encrypt the phone before resetting it:
- Go to Settings > Security & location > Advanced > Encryption & credentials and select “Encrypt phone”.
“AT LAST I WOULD SAY DO ENCRYPT YOURE PHONE BEFORE YOU SELL “
VANDE MATRAM
Tech with Gourav 