Selling or Buying Used Electronic Goods?

These days people sell electronic gadgets online all the time through places like Facebook, eBay, Amazon and Gumtree. My first question is have these people thought about the data that is on these devices? Have you brought a new (used or refurbished) gadget recently? Has that item been data cleansed? Data safety and protecting yourself begins with you and it is down to you in order to protect yourself from data theft, identity theft, fraud and other issues that arise as a result of buying and selling electronic devices without ensuring they are clean of data. Scared yet?? You should be!!
So you have an old laptop, phone, tablet or gadget you do not use any more.... holiday coming up and think the extra cash would be handy so you chuck it on eBay and within a few minutes it is listed and ready for sale. These days with 55% of smart phone users in the UK alone shopping alone (figures from ofcom report) people are increasingly buying and selling with the touch of a few fingertips without giving a second thought to what happens to that device when they have sold it. Data retrieval off electronic devices is a simple process with a little bit of knowledge and contributes massively to the increasing figures every year relating to fraud, identity theft and data theft to name but a few. People sell devices without giving a second thought to the data that is on them. Just factory resetting laptops and computers does not work. They need properly data cleaning to ensure that what the next person gets is like a new machine. Companies like us pay a lot of money for software that meets government standards for data destruction to ensure that nothing can be retrieved. 
With devices like tablets, phones and even televisions these days ensure that you factory reset these devices to remove your details and any billing information before selling them on. We purchase a lot of used televisions and equipment from traders and members of the public and you would be amazed how many of them have owners email addresses, photos, phone numbers and addresses alongside other information like credit card details still on them. Do you know what happens to your devices after you sell them?? The simple answer is no! So do what you can to protect yourself.
When you buy used devices you have no idea what you are getting? Like I said unless data destroyed previous user data still exists. Do you know what that person has been doing? What they have been viewing online? When something goes wrong with that machine and you take it to a repair shop do you know whatt they will find? Can you prove that it was not you looking at the website? Ensure that anything you buy comes from reputable dealers or be prepared to data cleanse it (remove old data so it cannot be brought back - ever!!) before use. There is free online software that will do this for home users. Create a restore disc and off you go. 
Questions? Feel free to ask or check out our other blog entries.
Kelly