Emerging Technologies Blog

Did you sell, or gave someone your Android smartphone?Whether it's a SamSung Galaxy S, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nexus, Xperia smartphone. I would advise you meet with the buyer right away and take your phone back.That's because all your text messages, emails, contacts,porn videos, pictures, Facebook and Google login details, are still sitting right there. Researchers at Cambridge University found out that the factory reset on more on 500 million Android phones running 4.3 or below(2.3) does not wipe off the sensitive information from the handset, leaving your confidential information in the hands of strangers who might do anything they like with it.

The researchers tried out 21 Android smartphones and were able to recover all sensitive data on the phones, including private text messages, emails, WhatsApps and Google login credentials even after they completely erased them.

Even more appalling is the fact that the  special tokens that allow you access to other third party apps such as Gmail,YouTube or financial apps were extracted by the researchers. What this means is that anyone who buys your phone and has a little hacking skill, he/she could easily gain access to your financial details with the tokens, because, a lot of banks now have apps for carrying out financial transactions.

Furthermore, the Cambridge Researchers also revealed that 630 million android phones may not properly erased internal SD cards, where all your pictures and videos are housed. Whether you wipe off your sensitive information on the phone, the person who buys the phone can still access it.

We will propound a solution to this in our next blog post. Stay tuned!