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on a scale of 0-9, I'd put factory reset at about a 5. I'd wager there's still software out there that could do a raw read of the SD storage device's blocks. Un
by digler999 10y ago
on a scale of 0-9, I'd put factory reset at about a 5. I'd wager there's still software out there that could do a raw read of the SD storage device's blocks. Unless Apple and friends have the device reset go to extra measures that tell the drive (at the chip-level, not the OS) "report all zeros" when read from, I think to increase your safety to "level 9" you should overwrite the disk by copying a large file several times until all the free space is consumed. Even then, flash drives have more physical storage than they report, but accessing those blocks would be pressing the edge of whats practical except in the most exigent situations.
Edit: I didn't realize virtually all phones' storage is encrypted nowadays.
- LamaOfRuin 10y agoDoesn't seem necessary if you had disk encryption enabled. The data remaining unerased on the disk is already meaningless without the key.
- digler999 10y agoTrue, but I meant my post as a one-size-fits-all rule. I'm sure there are many smart phones that don't use disk encryption.
- psybin 10y agoAll Apple devices are AES encrypted with a combination of a key on flash in the CPU, and a unique static key in the CPU core. "Erasing" the phone just removes the key, rendering the bulk flash storage completely useless. There's never any data stored which is not encrypted.