Instead, you need to overwrite your phone with dummy data so that even if it is recovered, it won’t include any trace of your personal information. If you truly want to protect your data, you can’t settle for a factory reset. How to completely erase a Samsung Galaxy phone Locked out of your Samsung Galaxy? Here’s how to unlock it They were able to recover more than 40,000 photos (including family photos of children and personal photos of women) plus Google search histories, emails, text messages, contact names and even a loan application.

In one experiment, security firm Avast purchased 20 factory reset Android phones on eBay.

Savvy hackers and even free Android recovery software can discover and unencrypt your master token, which is used to unlock your data. Rather, it encrypts data and “hides” it from the operating system. Samsung Galaxy To Sell? Find Cash & Trade In Value ›Ī standard Samsung Galaxy factory reset does not erase all data from your phone. Here’s what you need to do to permanently and completely reset your Samsung Galaxy. You know how important it is to erase your data before you sell your Samsung Galaxy, but a standard factory reset can still leave your personal photos, videos, contacts, bank accounts and other data exposed to savvy hackers (or anyone who downloads Android recovery software). Here’s how to completely erase your Galaxy so you can safely sell it It takes more than a factory rest to permanently wipe personal data from your Samsung Galaxy.

Samsung secure erase