I usually replace my things until they won't work at all, so this has never been a big fear of mine. Recently one of my older phones stopped working and I didn't have a chance to format it and remove the information. This is the only instance where I'm just going to keep the phone or completely destroy it so no one can get any of my info.
I like to make sure I wipe everything off an item before I get rid of ti. I on't like to sell it online because the recent breach in phone info leaked by equifax and tmobile makes me realize that there is a multitude of information that can be released if someone has even the smallest amount of information. I come to think that may be the same for imei info.
The best thing is to sell your PC without the hard-drive. For security purposes, I just don't throw away my phones. But it maybe zero work since the government steals all our personal info anyway.
I keep them around too, but would destroy a hard drive before dumping a PC. I suppose it's time to clean them out soon because I've had the whole lot of the past 15 years slowly accumulate.
I guess removing the Sim card would keep the phone data safe, no? There are lots of places where you can now sell or recycle phones, and I might be interested in doing that, if I could find a way to protect info. I think a data removal by way of the sim card would be the best way to protect yourself.
This is what I do. Take the device and remove parts, smash the heck out of them with a hammer, until they are not recognizable. Then I'll dispose of the pieces, by putting some in the garbage can for pickup. Then next week, I'll put more pieces in the garbage can. I did that with 2 old PC's and one old cell phone. In this case paranoia is a good thing. Best be careful with your identity.
That's that false sense of security right there. You probably can't sell your phones or your computers at all, but then you have to kind of think about it, what information would they have that somebody else would want? You can do a full erase with some virus protection software, but that might mess up the phone itself. Hmmm. I don't know what you can do to protect yourself from this happening. But if you sell your phone, and it still has some information on it, well who is going to call Tiffany when they don't know Tiffany just because her number is still in your phone?
