Encrypt your Android before you Sell it!

[Ink]

Content source

https://www.mywot.com/en/blog/wipe-android-data

Important: Phones have a variety of our most sensitive data, including private messages, pictures, passwords and contact info.

"According to a Cambridge study, the following are recoverable to hackers if you sell your android phone without a proper wipe.

• Photos and messages may still be on the hard disk, and are recoverable
• Passwords to email, social media. Google logins are recoverable after factory reset.
• App tokens act as a personal login (essentially a password) to apps for your phone., once app tokens are recovered by hackers, they can be used to login to Google accounts, Facebook, and more.

These data leaks can result in blackmail or selling the information in underground markets.

Why is factory reset for your android phone not enough?

A factory reset simply deletes the addresses of your data and tells your phone that it’s okay to write over your data, but doesn’t remove it. Recovery software can recover this data from a used Android phone."

Important: To secure your personal data, you should encrypt before running a factory reset.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thank you, @Huracan. That factory resets fall short is important to know as well as being currently applicable to our own household as we've an additional Smart-phone my wife has recently placed on the book shelf. If the phone is eventually handed down to our son, or even re-sold, it shall certainly be encrypted prior to releasing it again into the wild!