ABU DHABI // While selling or giving away an outdated mobile phone may seem like the environmentally friendly option, experts say there are risks to it.
A recent University of Cambridge study found that “the extraction of data from resold devices is a growing threat as more users buy second-hand devices”.
It said that “if users fear for their data, they may stop trading their old devices and buy fewer new ones”.
The issue arises from the specific type of hard drive used in mobile phones, which means even if the data is deleted it is feasible to retrieve it.
Dr Ibrahim Baggili, a former professor at Zayed University who has conducted studies on the subject, said: “What it boils down to is that when files are ‘deleted’ they are not actually deleted.
“The entry in what is similar to an index in a book that points to the file is deleted, so the file can still be recovered.”
Anyone with a basic knowledge of phones can easily recover up to 50 per cent of the data from a second-hand phone even after it has supposedly been reset to its factory settings.
His research team at Zayed University conducted an experiment in which they bought four second-hand mobile phones, brought them back to the lab and attempted to retrieve information from them.
“The findings strongly indicate that there is a lack of a strong standard in the UAE when phones are being refurbished and that these phones are not being properly wiped,” said Dr Baggili.
Ken Neil, founder of UAskmE, a company that raises awareness of e-waste and provides solutions, said users were more inclined to throw a phone away rather than selling it and risking the chance of identity theft.
“The thing that is keeping people from recycling their devices is the fear of data-bearing devices being used against you, in the case of identity theft or other,” he said.
His company provides a service to individuals that completely wipes their devices and returns them to actual factory settings.
“We can wipe it clean, provide a completely new phone, so that instead of people throwing them in the trash or keeping them in the cupboard, they can dispose of them and actually make money instead of throwing them in the trash and it being bad for the environment,” he said.
He said because phones were used to store highly personal information, such as photos and passwords, many were reluctant to allow them to be recycled.
“We hope to show that we can completely wipe the devices, so that users can either sell their devices or recycle them, knowing that it’s clean of anything that can compromise them,” he said.
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
