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Samsung’s “repair mode” lets technicians look at your phone, not your data
- turtleman1338 4y agoThere is a standard android feature for years that works the same: Guest Account. Anyway I would wipe my device before sending it to repairs.
- WaitWaitWha 4y agoFollowing is the text of the post as translated to English by G. > Samsung Electronics has officially unveiled the 'repair mode' service that can prevent the leakage of personal information of Galaxy smartphone users. 'Repair Mode' is a function that allows you to selectively disclose data when repairing a smartphone, and fundamentally blocks concerns about access or leakage of personal information that may occur during the repair process through some private companies. If the user executes 'Repair Mode' in the 'Battery and Device Care' menu in the 'Settings' of the smartphone, the smartphone is rebooted. After that, you won't be able to access your personal data, such as photos, messages, and accounts, and only use the default installed apps. After repairing the smartphone, the user can access personal data again after exiting the 'repair mode' and rebooting through pattern/fingerprint recognition. Samsung Electronics will first introduce 'repair mode' through software updates from the Galaxy S21 series, and plan to expand it to some other models in the future. Recently, Samsung Electronics has been continuously adding functions to protect and secure sensitive personal information to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Last year, it unveiled 'Samsung Knox Vault,' an information protection technology that blocks various attacks by storing encrypted personal information in its own storage space. We released a new security solution to block. In a recent article published in the Samsung Newsroom, Shin Seung-won, managing director of the Security Team of Samsung Electronics' MX Division, said, "Technology is connecting the world closer than ever, but the risks are also increasing." "Samsung's top priority is customers “It’s about making sure you stay safe while trying out this new experience.”
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- pvg 4y agohttps://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=author%3Adang%20english%20language%20site&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... For things like that, find an English language source or wait till one materializes.
- 63 4y agoThis feels like a big win for privacy. I just hope that it's communicated well enough that users know to enable it when they send in their phone for repairs. I also wish there was a way to enable it if the touchscreen is inaccessible, as it usually is by the time I would consider seeking repairs.
- ISL 4y agoSmart repair shops will enable it (and document it) as Step 0 in a repair. What a great way to reduce risk and liability for everyone.
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- randombits0 4y agoIt’s also bs. The promise is only as good as the maker and the technology. Has it been vetted? Are there independent evaluations? Is Samsung willing accept any liabilities in the event of failure? All hype, no substance. Delete your data (with no way of verifying) and restore it on return.
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- missedthecue 4y agoWhat would make you feel it's sufficiently vetted?
- DigiDigiorno 4y agoYou didn't ask me, but my input is that the two most obvious to me are: open source, so the effort can be vetted in good faith--or a insured guarante, so the consequences can be abated
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- silversnitch 4y agoCurious, why does Samsung need to have Phone booted up for battery repair? I recently had a battery replacement done for my iPhone and I had similar concerns if I need to give them Phone unlocked, but they asked me to turn off Phone. That is what I expect from battery repair!
- bpodgursky 4y agoI assume the technician wants to make sure the phone still works after they replace the battery...
- recycledmatt 4y agoYou want to turn it back on to validate everything is working right and it’s all plugged in correct. You also want to validate you didn’t break anything else while attempting the repair
- gambiting 4y agoAnd also(sadly necessary) you want to stop scammers who will send you a broken phone and then pretend you broke it. So you want to switch it on before and after the repair.
- kevincox 4y agoCan't they have a signed "self-test" image that they can boot up and it checks the phone? This wouldn't have access to any user data but can boot up and check that all of the components are working. This sounds much quicker and more effective than prodding at the user's OS anyways.
- TheSoftwareGuy 4y agoThat sounds like repair mode
- lghh 4y agoI worked at a phone repair place for a few years about a decade ago. This would have been great! However, it wasn't something that existed.
- frozenport 4y agoEverybody that upvoted read the article in Korean?
- blooalien 4y agoGoogle Translate *is* "a thing" these days… Amazing where technology has gotten us. Much of what we enjoy as commonplace today was literal science-fiction when I was just a child (not so very long ago).
- teej 4y agoWe live in the richest time in human history for free, high quality text translation.
- rvba 4y agoWe played Starcraft: Brood War so we know how to translate Korean
- leereeves 4y ago> If the user executes 'Repair Mode' in the 'Battery and Device Care' menu in the 'Settings' of the smartphone, the smartphone is rebooted. But how do you enter repair mode if your phone is broken?
- liminalsunset 4y agoI think on Samsung phones, plugging them into a standard USB-C multiport hub with an HDMI monitor and a keyboard/mouse plugged in allows use of the "DeX" mode, even while locked. I would assume someone could plug the phone in, use the mouse to enter their password and operate the UI to activate such a feature.
- Nullabillity 4y agoI'm sure that'll be helpful for the one person in the world who owns a USB-C multiport hub.
- liminalsunset 4y agoI wasn't aware they were so unpopular. I don't mean a Thunderbolt dock, it can be one of those ten buck dongles from Amazon with a bunch of ports on it, that looks like a glorified card reader. It will also work with any computer monitor that has a USB-C input and USB ports on it, usually, which are starting to become popular enough lately where I'm from.
- NavinF 4y agoThey’re pretty common. I don’t own one personally, but lots of people have laptops with no full-size HDMI port. For them the dongle is necessary to make the laptop usable.
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- nolok 4y agoYou can just use a usb to hdmi cable or adapter
- gjs278 4y ago
- re 4y agoSome English-language coverage: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/samsungs-repair-mode-lets-technicians-look-at-your-phone-not-your-data/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/samsungs-repair-mode... https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-repair-mode-data-isnt-stolen-during-phone-repair/ https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-repair-mode-data-isnt... https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZjbmt0TXpZd1NoRUtEd2pHNTZuVEJSR25NaFpUN19QZ1h5Z0FQAQ?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZj...
- dang 4y agoChanged from https://news.samsung.com/kr/%ec%82%bc%ec%84%b1-%ea%b0%a4%eb%9f%ad%ec%8b%9c%ed%8f%b0%ec%97%90-%ec%88%98%eb%a6%ac-%eb%aa%a8%eb%93%9c-%ec%b6%94%ea%b0%80-%ea%b0%9c%ec%9d%b8%ec%a0%95%eb%b3%b4-%ec%9c%a0%ec%b6%9c-%ec%9b%90 https://news.samsung.com/kr/%ec%82%bc%ec%84%b1-%ea%b0%a4%eb%.... Thanks!
- MrDresden 4y agoWhat does PII stand for? Personal identifiable information? If so, there is much more stored on a device then identity information.
- foota 4y agoIt generally means anything sensitive.
- karamanolev 4y agoIt's not so much identity information (i.e. data about your identity), as much as data that can personally identify you. The obvious PII is your full name and social security number. That's your identity. But your credit card number or your address aren't your identity, per se, but still can personally identify you, so also considered PII. Things that are not normally considered PII is for example your OS or even specific device model (i.e. user is using iPhone 12 Pro is not normally considered PII). As usual, it's not a crystal clear definition, so varies by context, company, industry regulations and so on.
- pbhjpbhj 4y agoThings like IMEI are PII too, the number is printed on a label on the mobile phone box and recorded by the seller (in UK, I gather) when you make a purchase.
- ixmerof 4y agoThat's both odd and interesting, my only experience with official repair services was that they always were starting ANY job by wiping the entire device. That was always written in bold letters that's what I have to agree for. Their answer on why it is required was always that's the only way to test the phone is fully functional as from factory with default config. Thus... I started fixing them on my own.
- jiggywiggy 4y agoThe amount of times it refused to give my password for a repair and they in returned refused warranty is more too often. Luckily it was mostly their bluf.
- baisq 4y agoThat's okay, but I would never send my phone in for repair without wiping it first no matter what. Surely I'm not alone :-)
- 627467 4y agoCompanies (apple included) can invest all they want in features and press releases claiming that said features are to ensure customer privacy but - unless these features are open sourced and subject to public and recurrent scrutiny - it is just faith that they expect from customers. If you care deeply about the privacy of you data, don't hand your data on a physical device to anyone.
- Pakdef 4y agoAlso, we know that if you use icloud, Apple saves a copy of your encryption key ...
- init2null 4y agoThat's true with iCloud Backup specifically, not iCloud. But unsecured notes and photos don't fall under the encryption umbrella, so syncing those means you lose privacy. Even syncing messages is safe, since messages are shared with your private encryption key. iCloud Backup and photo syncing are pretty much the bones thrown to US law enforcement.
- sneak 4y agoiCloud Backup is on by default. Approximately nobody uses iCloud without using iCloud Backup.
- tinus_hn 4y agoApproximately plenty of people use the free plan that has nowhere near enough space for backing up a modern phone.
- surewe 4y ago> Even syncing messages is safe, since messages are shared with your private encryption key. Do you mean the syncing of messages between logged in devices via the normal iMessage delivery mechanism (which I know is encrypted), or the "Messages in iCloud" feature?
- greatgib 4y agoI also call for bullshit feature. Most of the time, you send your phone because it is not working anymore, unreactive, so there will be no way to go into repair mode. But, that being said, this does not address also one big hurdle for people sending their phone for repair, that is the opposite: losing all data. As a standard procedure, most technicians will reset to factory the device to see if it fixes the problem even when you send it for an unrelated issue.
- stjohnswarts 4y agobut your phone (at least most modern phones) are encrypted and password/facialy recog locked. How are they going to get anything useful off of it?
- raninepaths 4y agoSomething is better than nothing.
- Too 4y agoWhat an odd feature to expose to the the user. User data partition is already encrypted. It would be enough with different boot option, chosen by the workshop with usb, fastboot or key combo, they could not access data anyway. Maybe its hard to explain to non techies why they need to power off their phone before handing it to the workshop. Otherwise this just sounds like PR stunt.
- alephxyz 4y agoI wonder if it works well enough to travel, i.e. does it make it obvious that the phone is in repair mode and does it stop someone from copying an image of your personal data.
- alok-g 4y agoManufacturers, please do the same for laptops too. ASUS warranty policy makes people click "I agree" to all their data being erased during a warranty repair. So what the repair needed is for a touch screen.