[ # ] Refurbished iPhones Could Contain Last User’s Data

/* Posted May 20th, 2008 at 10:13am */
/* Filed under Apple, iPhone */

refurb iPhone user data

It is quite possible that when you get your refurbished iPhone in the next few days you might be able to get more than just a little information about the previous owner of your phone. Think private emails, contact information and pictures. Yes that’s right, by using the restore feature through iTunes when the iPhone is connected and some forensic tools, you could possibly recover some of the last owner’s data as the refurbishing procedure used by Apple actually does not delete all of the user’s information.

Jonathan Zdziarski, author of the iPhone Open Application Development and an iPhone forensics manual for law enforcement had this to say:

A verified detective from the Oregon State Police notified me this afternoon that an out-of-the-box refurbished iPhone he purchased contained recoverable personal data including email, personal photos, and even financial information which he was able to recover using my forensic toolkit. The photos he sent me included the individualâ€™s name, which Iâ€™ve blurred out myself, but if youâ€™ve ever had to return a defective iPhone, you might recognize this inbox. The more sensitive information hasnâ€™t been posted here for obvious reasons.

Worried about the data in your iPhone that you might be returning soon? Be very concerned. Zdziarski adds:

And for those of you who use “Erase all Content and Settings”, this has even less of an effect, as it doesn’t even destroy the file system. In both cases, all of the personal information that was sitting on the device prior to the erase or restore is still left sitting in the unallocated blocks of the iPhone’s NAND memory.