"Data Recovery: What Happens to Your Personal Information When You Sell Your Used Devices?"

An investigation by Channel Nine News purchased five used phones from Gumtree and took them to a data recovery center. The result was staggering: over 19,000 deleted files were retrieved, including emails, photos, videos, and sensitive information such as passwords and banking details.

As a data recovery specialist, it's possible to retrieve data from storage devices like phones, laptops, and cameras, even if they have been reset to factory settings or formatted before sale. The same is not always true for hard drives.

To protect your personal information, it's recommended not to sell your phones, or if you do, destroy them completely. When selling laptops or computers, removing the hard drive or using a data shredding program to erase all information is the safer option. However, this will require reloading the operating system and drivers before selling the device.

Share this information with your network to raise awareness of the potential consequences of selling used devices without properly erasing personal information.

By Pete of Precision Data Recovery.