Cavechat.org

Posted: **Feb 3, 2009 8:09 pm**

Thought this might be important to the lot of you... trading in your old cell phone for that nice new one without making SURE you wiped the memory clean of your old data...

Report: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/118074 ... wner-data/
The reports of owners purchasing used or refurbished cell phones and other gadgets and finding sensitive material on them have become so commonplace they're no longer eyebrow-raising in the slightest. Why, last week a New Zealand man bought a used MP3 player for about 10 bucks... and was bemused to find it preloaded with U.S. military records and personnel data for troops stationed in the Middle East. In December, an old BlackBerry sold at a McCain campaign garage sale for 20 dollars was found to be preloaded with a mountain of Republican donor information, emails, and more. Just another day at the flea market, it seems...

Why are all these reports popping up? Turns out they're the norm, not the exception, as the vast majority of cell phones sent in for recycling aren't properly wiped clean, with a full 99 percent of them containing sensitive material when they're gotten rid of, including personal emails and financial information and logins.

Posted: **Feb 4, 2009 2:11 am**

And even if you erase things from the phone, they are still there, deep within, where the smart people can find them.

Posted: **Feb 4, 2009 10:42 am**

pull the card out and smash it to bits!

Posted: **Feb 4, 2009 11:54 am**

graveleye wrote:pull the card out and smash it to bits!

My phone doesn't have an accessible card. Very few entries have people's real names on them...mostly initials, some nicknames. If someone stole my phone, they'd be hard pressed to figure out who most of the numbers belong to.

Posted: **Feb 4, 2009 9:49 pm**

Teresa wrote:
graveleye wrote:pull the card out and smash it to bits!

My phone doesn't have an accessible card. Very few entries have people's real names on them...mostly initials, some nicknames. If someone stole my phone, they'd be hard pressed to figure out who most of the numbers belong to.

I don't think mine has a card either.

Like Teresa - mine just has a phone numbers with first names and a last initial if I know have two people with the same last name. I don't do e-mails and don't text on my cell phone. I rarely even talk on it except to my daughter, my son and my mom who are long distance from where I live.

I'm on phone # 4 - got my first one sometime in the early 2000's # 1 and #3 are in the bottom drawer of my china cabinet and #2 is on the side of the road - lost it when I left my purse on the bumper when we stopped for ice and munchies on a canoe shuttle on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. If anybody could make sense of the first names in the phone if they found it and managed to get it set up for use after being out in the weather.

I get the cheap-o free phones that come with the service

Posted: **Feb 6, 2009 3:55 am**

All cell phones have a SIM card. It's usually located under the battery.

Posted: **Feb 6, 2009 3:50 pm**

Amocholes wrote:All cell phones have a SIM card. It's usually located under the battery.

Not in my phone.There may be a SIM card in my phone somewhere, but it is inaccessible without destroying the phone case. I have a "candy bar" type Sanyo 4920--yes, I 've had the battery off. When I recently activated a Samsung flip phone for my 78 year old aunt, I had to install the SIM card, which led me to examine my phone. It's two sealed units-- with nary evidence of a SIM anywhere. We didn't install anything when we got our phones-- just Pay N Play.

Posted: **Feb 6, 2009 10:04 pm**

No sim card in my phone either.

sim cards are soooo 2007...............

Posted: **Feb 27, 2009 11:32 pm**

SIM cards are only on GSM type phones (AT&T, T mobile). Other phones are either CDMA (sprint, verizon), or IDEN (nextell).
I used to work at Radioshaft. :rofl:

Posted: **Feb 28, 2009 8:14 am**

I think I'm the only American left that doesn't own a cell phone. :bananabat:

....and one of the few that doesn't carry a gun! :clap:

Posted: **Feb 28, 2009 10:10 am**

Cavemud wrote::bananabat: I think I'm the only American left that doesn't own a cell phone.

....and one of the few that doesn't carry a gun!

I have a cell phone but I don't "text". I have it mainly because I live in a remote area and travel to & from work (except in summer) in the dark. I also drive an older vehicle and need to be able to call for help. . . the problem with this is in my remote area sometimes cell signals are "iffy" so it is probably false security.

I also don't carry a gun. . . . but I do carry a big stick.

Posted: **Feb 28, 2009 11:34 am**

mgmills wrote:
I also don't carry a gun. . . . but I do carry a big stick.

As softly spoken you are... it's fitting then. :grin:

Cavechat.org

99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data

Re: 99% of recycled cell phones still contain owner data