Precautions to erase all personnal info from a device

[kipue]

Hi all, I am starting this thread for my own info, but also hopefuly to see if it can be helpful to others in the future.
I often change devices, and soon will resell my S4.
Usually, before doing so, I wipe all, including internal storage from recovery then flash a stock/stock looking rom.
Should that be enough to get rid of absolutly everything? I recently heard a podcast where they were discussing the fact that many phones sold on ebay and such still contain quite a lot of personnal data, but I tend to think that the people reselling their devices just don't even take the necessary precaution to wipe it.
They went on saying that encrypting the device, then removing the encryption would make sure that nothing is left, but is it really necessary in your opinion? I am thinking that simple formatting all as I do (and many of us too I guess) should be enough?
What do you think?

 

[DarkerTimes]

Hi all, I am starting this thread for my own info, but also hopefuly to see if it can be helpful to others in the future.
I often change devices, and soon will resell my S4.
Usually, before doing so, I wipe all, including internal storage from recovery then flash a stock/stock looking rom.
Should that be enough to get rid of absolutly everything? I recently heard a podcast where they were discussing the fact that many phones sold on ebay and such still contain quite a lot of personnal data, but I tend to think that the people reselling their devices just don't even take the necessary precaution to wipe it.
They went on saying that encrypting the device, then removing the encryption would make sure that nothing is left, but is it really necessary in your opinion? I am thinking that simple formatting all as I do (and many of us too I guess) should be enough?
What do you think?

When you wipe your data you are still able to recover them with programs like Recuva.
To be 100% sure you have to delete your data and overwrite the complete internal storage with senseless information.


Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[kipue]

When you wipe your data you are still able to recover them with programs like Recuva.
To be 100% sure you have to delete your data and overwrite the complete internal storage with senseless information.


Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

Oh yeah I see, but it is still some "work" to get information from an individual person, what I mean I do not hold any sensitive info or anything.
But good to keep in mind, i guess I'm just wondering if that would be enough for normal usage... No personal info can normaly survive such a wipe I think

 

[DarkerTimes]

When you delete data on a storage it still stays there. It isn't deleted, the system just releases the space for overwriting with new information.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[Skipjacks]

Oh yeah I see, but it is still some "work" to get information from an individual person, what I mean I do not hold any sensitive info or anything.
But good to keep in mind, i guess I'm just wondering if that would be enough for normal usage... No personal info can normaly survive such a wipe I think

For normal usage, yes. Using Odin to flash the stock ROM will remove all references to your data. The data will still be there but will not have a file structure so a normal person getting their hands on it won't know that there is existing data and will overwrite it with their own data in due time.

If you sell it to someone who knows what they are doing, the data is easily accessible.

If you really want to kill the data, kill the phone. Put it in the microwave for 45 minutes. Have a fire extinguisher handy. The phone will not have any data remaining.

(Do not actually do this. You will burn your house down.)

 

[kipue]

For normal usage, yes. Using Odin to flash the stock ROM will remove all references to your data. The data will still be there but will not have a file structure so a normal person getting their hands on it won't know that there is existing data and will overwrite it with their own data in due time.

If you sell it to someone who knows what they are doing, the data is easily accessible.

If you really want to kill the data, kill the phone. Put it in the microwave for 45 minutes. Have a fire extinguisher handy. The phone will not have any data remaining.

(Do not actually do this. You will burn your house down.)

Haha, yes true, or I could keep the phone for myself
No I'm not trully worried, I just wanted to see if others have better, more convenient or thorough ways to do so, but really i don't care so much.
Thanks for your input, I think that my usual way is good enough, and standard

 

[Skipjacks]

Haha, yes true, or I could keep the phone for myself
No I'm not trully worried, I just wanted to see if others have better, more convenient or thorough ways to do so, but really i don't care so much.
Thanks for your input, I think that my usual way is good enough, and standard

If you want to be more thorough figure out how much free space is on the internal storage and then upload that amount of mp3's to the storage. Then delete them. That will overwrite your data.

It could still be recovered by someone who REALLY knows what they are doing, but at this point you would have to be paranoid to worry about it.

 

[Strephon Alkhalikoi]

On a tablet forum I frequent I had this exact question asked, and the solution I gave was to encrypt the data first, then wipe the device. That way if something is extracted from the device, it's virtually useless as the new owner won't have the necessary information to decrypt the data.

 

[kipue]

Yeah, all those would work too
I'm not that paranoid, as I don't really hold any very important info on this device, I think i'll just go for a complete wipe, thanks for your input guys.

 

[umairulhaq]

There is a software named NUKE MY DEVICE.. its an apk file.. install and run it on ur device..it will erase all the data and the data will no longer be recoverable..