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Jemima Kiss

 
A factory reset is the safest way to erase personal data before disposing of a handset.

Consumers are unwittingly passing much of their most private personal data to strangers when they discard mobile phones, with intimate photos and credit card numbers and pins frequently left on handsets, according to new research.

An analysis of 50 handsets bought from second-hand resellers on eBay found that more than half contained personal messages or photos, according to exclusive research from the mobile and forensics experts Disklabs. More than 60 per cent still contained phone numbers left on a call log. A number were sold with pornographic material still on the phone.

“The worst thing a consumer can do is hope or assume that the person buying the phone will remove the data,” said Simon Steggles, director of Disklabs. “Any data left on the phone is effectively open to the public domain. That could be as varied as intimate photos, videos and text messages ... People hit ‘delete' and think that means it is gone for ever, but that's not the case.” Researchers found porn on nine of the 50 handsets, while video and calendar information were also still on nine handsets. Personal security information, including home address, credit card numbers and pin numbers, was on 26 of the handsets.

Nine of the handsets had had their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number changed — indicating they had been lost or stolen at some point. When reported, lost and stolen mobiles have their IMEI cancelled, which means they can no longer connect to the network.

Mobiles store user data in different places, depending on hardware model, software and user preferences. Deleting SMS messages, for example, is unlikely to completely remove that data from the phone. Mr. Steggles said a factory reset is the safest and most reliable way to erase personal data before disposing of or selling a handset.

Mr. Steggles said consumers are often naive in their approach to personal data, a problem compounded by mobile trade-in systems, which offer money in exchange for old handsets.

The popularity of apps makes it even more important for mobile owners to properly erase their data before selling handsets. Mr. Steggles pointed to GPS-enabled apps such as RunKeeper, which logs when someone leaves their home and where they run to within a few metres. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010