Smartphones markets are full of 2nd hand sales. Most of the customers which can’t buy new expensive handsets, purchases 2nd hand handsets at relatively cheaper rate. Even, there is sometimes a concept of ‘third’ hand sale too in such markets. Android phones are widely undergone such sales. Each user when goes to sell his in-use Android handset make sure to remove his/her personal contents and data. For this purpose, he/she uses the default Android Data Wipe feature. But well, here is a bad news. The feature is not as effective as you think it is!
The popular security software company Avast has just carried out a high profile research on this issue. The company acquired twenty ‘used’ handsets from eBay auction site, making sure they have undergone Android Data Wipe feature. The research team was able to recover nearly 40,000 pictures, 750 email conversations and complete text streams. Even, they were able to access sensitive financial information. This is due a SECURITY BUG in Android Data Wipe feature!
You may think that Avast would have done this by using some expensive techniques i.e. softwares. Or, it may have use its own enhanced security tools for this purpose. But well, you are WRONG in this case too! Avast was able to undone Android Data Wipe feature through publicly available data recovery softwares i.e. FTK Imager.
This surely has endangered the privacy of millions of people. Considering the sensitivity of the issue, Google should make an immediate interference suggesting a solution or making Android Date Wipe feature effective enough. Till then, we recommend you to use some efficient third party software to clean your personal data from Android device instead of using default Android Data Wipe feature.