Protect Your Cell Phone Data

SEATTLE - Think of all the personal stuff that's stored on your cell phone. Besides the address book, there could be PIN codes and passwords, pictures, documents, or confidential email.

That's why you want to erase the phone's memory before you sell it or donate it. You should also do that if you take the phone in for servicing. You may not get the same phone back, which means your phone could get fixed and given to someone else.

So how do you wipe the phone clean? "Every phone is different,” says Andrew Brandt of PC World (www.pcworld.com). “There's no simple step to do a master reset of the phone."

Brandt, who writes the magazine’s Privacy Watch column, says don't rely on the wireless company to wipe out your phone's memory - do it yourself.

"In some cases, it could be fairly complicated,” he explains, “because the phone will store some data in one location, some data in another location and there can be as many as six or seven seven different places where you'll have to go through several steps to delete the data.”

You may be able to get detailed instructions from your wireless provider or go to wirelessrecycling.com and look for the link to the Data Eraser page.

Read Andrew Brandt’s column: Wipe Your Cell Phone’s Memory Before Giving It Away

For More Information:

Where to donate a phone?

FAQS about recycling a wireless phone

Verizon HopeLine recycling

Recycling of electronics encouraged