Erasing android phone
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My mum approached me about an old (~4 years) android phone she wants to dispose of. It will no longer charge and is already completely decharged, but the memory very likely contains sensitive information.
She's looking for a way to ensure the data can no longer be retrieved before putting the phone in recycling.
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@PleegWat said in Erasing android phone:
My mum approached me about an old (~4 years) android phone she wants to dispose of. It will no longer charge and is already completely decharged, but the memory very likely contains sensitive information.
She's looking for a way to ensure the data can no longer be retrieved before putting the phone in recycling.
Drill and hammer.
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@PleegWat said in Erasing android phone:
the memory very likely contains sensitive information.
Does Android not have encrypted storage?
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@MrL
if I had a hammer ...
I'd hammer in the morning
All over this phone!
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@PleegWat It's not possible to boot while connected to a charger either?
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@cvi Apparently not. Actually it's quite possible it's not the battery that is broken, since apparently it was still getting a decent runtime on its last charge. It just didn't want to charge again afterwards.
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@topspin said in Erasing android phone:
@PleegWat said in Erasing android phone:
the memory very likely contains sensitive information.
Does Android not have encrypted storage?
IIRC, it does, but that's only effective if you have a pin code or password configured on the phone.
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Gas torch of 1000° or more, and some tongs and a glove. Exfiltrating data is significantly harder when all the metal is molten and everything else turned to ash.
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@Carnage The neighbours may object to the scent of molten plastic wafting from the fire bowl.
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@PleegWat OK, too bad. My mother had managed to toast her phone (a bit too literally), specifically, the charging port. Not sure how involved you want to get personally, but if you don't care about the phone itself, opening it up and checking the state of the port might be relatively easy.
If destruction is the goal, looking up the location of the storage chip (which should be relatively easy to identify) and just mutilating it could be an alternative to exposing your whole neighbourhood to plastic fumes and burning lithium battery.
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@cvi Why not just remove that little SD card (that's the "storage chip", isn't it?) and use it for other purposes (e.g. as extension card in the next phone)?
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@PleegWat said in Erasing android phone:
@Carnage The neighbours may object to the scent of molten plastic wafting from the fire bowl.
Never had that issue.
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@BernieTheBernie Internal flash storage.
Even if the phone had an (mini/micro) SD card -which isn't a given for something as recent as 4 years old- you'd still want to nuke the internal storage.
Besides, I think it's safe to assume that @PleegWat wouldn't have asked if all that was necessary was removing an SD card...
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@cvi I never asked her, but I'm sure my mum would've gotten that far.
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@BernieTheBernie said in Erasing android phone:
@cvi Why not just remove that little SD card (that's the "storage chip", isn't it?) and use it for other purposes (e.g. as extension card in the next phone)?
We're not in the Froyo days of yore where storage was kept actually separate from the system storage...
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@cvi said in Erasing android phone:
@BernieTheBernie Internal flash storage.
Even if the phone had an (mini/micro) SD card -which isn't a given for something as recent as 4 years oldReally? My phone is 4 years old, and with its 64 GB of internal memory, I assumed it to be a card...
Anyways, good to learn that there might be more places in that thingy were sensitive information could be stored (beyond the SIM card).
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@BernieTheBernie I think 64gb is unlikely to be on-die, but it is probably on-package or a separate chip. It might even be a chip talking the SD card protocol. But it's highly unlikely to be anything compatible with the SD card form factor.
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Only the flame will cleanse us.
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@BernieTheBernie You can see some on various teardowns/guides. For example:
Storage chip is marked in orange in the image / second link.
