I have an old phone (zenfone max pro m1). The reason I never sold the phone (or any storage device TBH) is that I was afraid the buyer can recover any sensitive data from my phone.
After a long time (2 years?) I found it deep inside my closet while cleaning and charged it to see if it’s still working. It’s working, but the screen’s flickering and stretching or something. Anyway, it’s finally time to kill this device for good.
So… how should I do it? Can I just put it in kerosene and burn it? Or is there software which can “deep wipe” the storage (like we zero the hdd/sdd drives)? Or should I just crush it with a rock and throw in a nearby water body so that rust can take care of it? What’s the safest method, so that nobody can ever recover that data?
I just keep my old devices tucked away in a closet lol. Of all the stuff I have in my house, a phone takes up next to no space unless you’re buying tens of them every 2 months and keeping the boxes.
opening these phones is such a PITA, as you need those special tools. that’s why I considered bashing it with rocks instead. I have no idea where the storage chip is inside this phone.
I can still keep it, but only if I safely erase all traces of data. Sometimes, we see a “used phones” hawker who comes on cycle and exchanges old phones for plastic plates or other stuff. My worst nightmare is my family giving these away to him, and me finding that out later.
agreed. But most of the phones that are dying now were from before the encryption era (especially if you unlock bootloader or flash custom roms). Any of my current phones, I can just reset and sell/give-away after a simple factory reset to remove the encryption keys. All my secrets are to stay between me, god and google.
True, a reset seems sufficient. However, if OP is still paranoid, you can fill the storage up with random junk and reset once again. Pretty overkill, but it should do the job.
I am just starting to learn repairing mobiles. Send it to me. I will happily desolder the EMMC and send it to you, or destroy it for you, after you are done wiping it!
Flash stock rom → Factory reset → Enable encryption if supported but disabled → Fill storage with junk data → Factory reset again.
Anything that launched with Android 6.0 or later must have encryption enabled by default. In Android 5.0, it was enabled by default but manufacturers could opt-out. Before that it was opt-in. So it’s unlikely that you have a device which does not support encryption.
Alright, “fill storage with junk data” seems to be the most reliable option. I will copy a bunch of movies until the storage is full and do a full reset before throwing it at the recycling guy.
I’m also curious about how to safely get rid of old phones and batteries in an environment friendly manner. My main concern is the battery discharge contaminating the groundwater supply.
It depends. If the phone is old but usable and has > 0 monetary value, selling it after wiping data is always an option, and that’s what I do with most phones.
Reusing is generally a better option than recycling. Plus, your local workers, guards, vendors, etc., could even be happy with functional feature phones, since I’ve seen some of them using broken/problematic ones. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure after all.
You could even use it at home as a desk weather widget/digital clock/photo frame, etc., provided it’s powered directly and the battery isn’t being constantly charged.
Then there’s recycling. They salvage valuable materials from e-waste for selling, and dispose of hazardous materials safely (I doubt local guys will do this). I recycled 4-5 broken feature phones and a non-functional smartphone via Cashify last year with a free pickup, although I don’t know if they still offer that service. However, there are a few other e-waste management organisations. There’s one called Attero that’s supposedly in a lot of states in India.
