Study: 1 in 5 Resold Phones Contained Enough Data to Identify Previous Owner

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A 2022 UK forensic study of 100 second-hand mobile devices found that nearly half had no data removal attempted before resale. Among devices still holding data, 20% contained personally identifiable information such as names and account details accessible to the new buyer. A separate 2025 study found recoverable user data on over 12% of USB drives sold as new on the secondhand chip market. Forensic research also shows that even a proper factory reset may leave some data recoverable through low-level analysis, since not all storage partitions are fully wiped. Experts recommend encrypting a device before performing a reset when selling, and buyers are advised to run their own factory reset before signing into any personal accounts.

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