New Delhi: You passed on your old Android smartphone to your younger sibling by just doing a ‘factory reset’ and you thought all the data was gone- with just a single tap. But, researchers at the Cambridge University have just proved you wrong.
A group of researchers at the university have found that the important function in Android devices is not as effective and even after resetting the phone, the data is retrievable.
It is estimated that as many as 500 to 630 million Android devices might not be capable of completely wiping the data saved in their internal disks and SD cards, an Engadget report notes.
The researchers came to the conclusion after testing 21 devices running Android 2.3 to 4.3 from five different manufacturers that already went through factory reset. At least part of the data stored in each sample device, even if it was protected with full-disk encryption, was recoverable.
The recovered data included contacts, images and videos, texts, emails and log-ins for third-party apps like Facebook and WhatsApp. The researchers were also able to retrieve the master token needed to access all Google user data in 80 per cent of the phones.
The researchers suggest that there are many possible explanations for the failure of Android’s factory reset feature’s malfunctioning. They say manufacturers sometimes don't load a phone's software with the drivers needed to completely wipe its internal disk or SD card add-on. Also, flash drives are notoriously difficult to erase.
It is unclear if Google has knowledge about the issue or is working towards patching it. Until then, if you want to give away your old Android phone, you know it isn’t really a wise decision.
Comments
0 comment