Who doesn’t get allured by a newly launched iPhone? everyone is tempted to grab the latest iPhone with exciting new features. But! What about the old one? Now, before you list your old iPhone for sale on eBay, Backmarket, or Gazelle, you must know a really important thing. I guess you already know, thanks to the title.
iPhones can retain significant value even for older models, so attractive offers may tempt you. However, before handing over your device to any unknown entity or person, erasing all your data is an essential precaution.
Your smartphone data has become widely vulnerable due to increasing cybersecurity threats. Hence, you must ensure the data is completely deleted and inaccessible before selling your old iPhone device. But you may already know that even after deleting your iPhone files, some or all of them are recoverable with specially designed iPhone data recovery tools.
Just imagine the consequences of your private or confidential data being leaked on the internet or the dark web. With the rise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, your official and confidential information could easily be compromised with just a wrong click. You may feel safe after factory resetting your device, but risks remain.
The risks of not erasing your iPhone device are:
When you sell your old iPhone, it’s important to remove everything on the phone before giving it away. Even if you think you’ve deleted everything, the new owner could still find your private information and use it to cause problems.
- Data Breaches: Your iPhone might have private work emails, important documents, or other secret information. If the new owner finds this, they could share it with others and cause problems with work secrecy and litigations, thus risking your job.
- Reputation Issues: There might be private photos and videos on your iPhone. If the new owner finds this, they could share it on social media, causing a loss of reputation and may affect your relationship with others.
- Financial Risk: Someone can find your bank details, credit cards, and other financial information on your iPhone. They could then use this to take money from your accounts and cause you financial trouble.
- Hacked Accounts: If you don’t remove everything, the new owner could access your email, social media, and other online accounts. They could then use these to cause you social and legal problems for you.
Therefore, it’s highly important to completely remove everything from your iPhone before you sell it. Wiping your device is the best way to prevent data leaks or cybercrimes when selling your iPhone. But how do you wipe your iPhone device, and why is wiping different from the normal deletion of files?
While deleting only frees up your device storage, wiping cleans everything beyond recovery. So let’s say you deleted an iPhone X and wiped clean iPhone Y, and now you run an iPhone data recovery tool on both of these devices. You can recover the deleted files from iPhone X very easily, but even a single byte of data on iPhone Y won’t be traced or recovered.
Ironically, the internet offers problems and solutions for data safety. Luckily, certain software available on the internet can help you wipe clean your data. Critics may argue that risk is at every step you take online. So if you agree with them, the most secure way to dispose of an old iPhone is to take a sledgehammer and powder your old iPhone. Or, if that seems hard, how about throwing your iPhone into the barbeque? (not advisable)
The internet has both good and bad, and I agree that most apps can be fishy and might not do a great job at protecting your data. But some good tools care about your data and privacy. One of them is Stellar Eraser for iPhone. I personally experienced this software, and let me tell you that it does a great job of completely wiping your iPhone without leaving any trace of your data behind.
Here are the simple steps to wipe your iPhone data with Stellar iPhone Eraser:
- Download and install Stellar Eraser for iPhone on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone to the computer using a USB cable.
- Select the “Erase iPhone” option in the Stellar iPhone Eraser software.
- Wait while the Stellar Eraser tool wipes your iPhone clean.
Using a trusted tool like Stellar Eraser to wipe your iPhone before selling it. This way, you can be sure your private information is completely gone and won’t fall into the wrong hands.
So, before you hand over your old iPhone to a new owner, make sure to wipe clean it using a reputable iPhone eraser tool. This extra precaution will give you peace of mind, while knowing your sensitive data is completely deleted and won’t be accessed by any unauthorized party. Thus, it’s better safe than sorry.
