Resetting your old phone before selling it may be costly! Know the right way to delete data

It is now very common to sell or exchange an old phone as soon as a new smartphone arrives. Most people do a ‘Factory Reset’ of their old phone before giving it to a shop, online platform or friend. They feel that by resetting the phone, all the personal data, private photos, videos and banking information were deleted forever. But do you know that this thinking of yours can prove to be a big mistake? Just doing a factory reset does not completely erase your data. Let us know the correct way to delete data.

The real truth of factory reset?

When you simply ‘factory reset’ the phone, your data does not disappear from the phone’s storage forever. It simply deletes the ‘address/pointer’ of that data and makes that space appear ‘blank’. In simple words, the data remains hidden in the storage chip itself. Any malicious person can recover deleted sensitive photos, documents and contacts from your old phone by using many free or cheap data recovery software available in the market.

How to make data disappear 100%?

If you want that your personal data cannot be recovered under any circumstances, then follow these two easy steps before selling the phone.

1. Turn on phone encryption

Data is encrypted by default in the latest iPhones, but in many Android phones this has to be checked manually. To turn on encryption, go to your phone’s Settings > Security & Privacy > Encryption & Credentials. If your phone is not encrypted, select the ‘Encrypt Phone’ option.

Encryption turns all your data into a complex code. After this, even if you reset the phone and someone recovers the data, he will still see only the garbage code and not your real photos or files.

2. Use ‘overwrite’ technique

This is a desi jugaad. Cyber ​​security experts recommend ‘overwriting’ to completely erase data. This method replaces old data with new useless data.

• Step 1: First of all do a normal ‘Factory Reset’ of your phone.
• Step 2: After reset, turn on the phone (without logging in with any personal Google/Apple account).
• Step 3: Now turn on the phone’s camera and record video of any wall, ground or dark room until the entire memory of the phone is 100% full. If you want, you can also download some big and useless random files from the internet.
• Step 4: After the storage is completely filled, do a ‘Factory Reset’ once again.

Why does it work?

Through this process, your old original photos and data are replaced with ‘dark videos’ or ‘useless files’. Now even if someone runs the recovery software, he will get only the same random video instead of your private photos.

Quick Check List Before Selling

1. Log out of all online accounts (Google, iCloud, WhatsApp, Banking Apps).
2. Don’t forget to remove the SIM card and micro SD/memory card.
3. Keep a safe note of the IMEI number of the phone.

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