Thinking about selling your iPhone in anticipation of the upcoming 3G launch? Proceed with caution. According to iPhone Atlas, “delted” user data is still able to be recovered by future owners. It seems that user data is held in unused portions of the device’s NAND memory, even after a full wipe has been executed. A recent attempt to mine data from a fresh-out-of-the-box refurbished unit revealed a significant amount of sensitive data, including emails, contacts, and more. To be fair, the miner recovered the data with professional grade forensics software, so you probably won’t have much to worry about from the average end-user, but it’s still something to be mindful of if you’re looking to sell your unit second hand.
Refurbed iPhones not so secure
Updated Dec 19th, 2018 6:00PM EST
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Josh Karp followed his love of technology since a kid through to the present day. As a Special Correspondent at BGR, and part of the first editorial team, Josh covers press conferences, trade shows and other events around the world. An expert in all things mobile, Josh has more than eighteen years of experience covering the wireless industry.
