When I had reported the breaking news of the 3G iPhone launch on June 9th, readers had commented and emailed that they plan to sell their older but soon to be obsolete iPhone to buy the latest and greatest version. If you are one of them then the post earlier this week regarding iPhones sold as refurbished unit revealed previous owners personal data could definitely be one of your concerns.
Rich Mogull over at Securosis.com has come to the rescue and has published a method that should wipe out almost all your personal data to prevent it from being recovered later.
Before I get into the details I must warn you that the method is nowhere close to the "Full iPhone format function in iTunes" iPhone Hacks reader Kane2007uk wanted to see Apple implement nor is it foolproof or thoroughly tested.
Here are the steps that you need to follow:
- Restore the iPhone from within iTunes.
- On the “Info” tab, un-check all options so you don’t synchronize calendars, email, bookmarks, and contacts.
- On the Photos, Podcasts, and Video tabs, uncheck “Sync …”.
- Create 3 big playlists at large as the storage capacity of your iPhone.
- On the Music tab, select the first of your 3 playlists to sync. Make sure the storage bar at the bottom looks full after syncing.
- Sync your iPhone, change to the next playlist, sync again, and repeat one last time.
This method should help in hopefully overwriting any of the free space on your phone and thus preventing any of your personal data once stored on your iPhone to be recovered by the new owner.
Or you could simply use this method that iPhone Hacks reader louis had mentioned in the comments:
"Just remember before you sell your phone to use cyberduck to go into the phone trash all the files contact, email folders etc, reboot the phone, restore the phone (but not from backup)."
I liked Kane2007uk’s idea of the "Full iPhone format function in iTunes", lets hope Apple implements it in the near future or a native iPhone application by the enterprising iPhone hacking community.
If you have put this method to the test or have an even better method to do this then do let us know in the comments.
Update:
While we are on the subject of personal data of previous owners being available on the iPhone it is also important to note here that the data was recovered using forensics software. It is not easy for an average user who bought a refurbished iPhone to gain access to the previous users data. I also don’t think this is is an issue with the certified refurbished iPhones sold by Apple or AT&T as I am sure they would be using some internal tool/s to format the iPhone. It is a something you should be aware of and take precaution to avoid your personal data being recovered by someone with the proper expertise if you are planning to sell directly on sites like eBay or Craiglist.
[via Securosis.com]
Top iPhone Hacks Categories:
Hacks
iPhone Applications
Unlock iPhone
JailBreak iPhone
iPhone Tips & Tricks
iPhone Games
iPhone News
What next?
