Old Mobile Phone Recovers Privacy Risks

January 28, 2024

Old Mobile Phone Recovery Privacy Risks

Since Apple launched the "replacement for old" campaign, mobile phone recycling has once again attracted everyone's attention. The China News Service IT channel has learned that the current prices of some official mobile phone recycling channels are very low; some private mobile phone recycling channels have a slightly higher price, but there is a risk that personal information will be leaked. Under such circumstances, how to dispose of used mobile phones becomes a common problem for everyone when the speed of mobile phone replacement is getting faster and faster.

Current situation: low recycling rate of used mobile phones In the era of mobile Internet, the speed of mobile phone replacement is getting faster and faster. According to a report released by Qihoo 360 last year, about 50% of mobile phone users switch time is 18 months, and 20% of users are within one year. Must change the phone. In this situation, there are more and more old mobile phones in the hands of users.

How should these old phones be disposed of? Through interviews, it was learned that "selling unused mobile phones" became the choice of many people. It is understood that there are various types of mobile phone recycling companies on the market. There are both mobile phone brand manufacturers and traditional Internet companies. There are private recycling and mobile phone oxen flooding them. The recycling market is a mixed bag. However, they have one thing in common: the low recycling price.

Through a number of calculations given by the recycling mobile phone companies, a 80% new iPhone 4S with no damage will be recycled at a price of 500 to 800 yuan, and the iPhone 5 will be recycled at a price of 1,000 yuan. Some mobile phone brands offer lower recycling prices, such as Apple's official recycling price: iPhone4S recycling price is about 500 yuan; iPhone4 recycling price is about 250 yuan.

For such low recycling prices, many netizens do not “pay the bill”. After Apple’s official recycling price was “launched”, it was a lot of “fruit powder” Tucao: it would be more cost-effective to sell it to “yellow cattle”.

As for the reason for the low recycling price, Wang Yanhui, the secretary general of the Mobile China Alliance, said that it was mainly because it was a very profitable industry and the recycling costs were relatively low.

Risks: The old mobile phone was improperly handled or personal information was leaked. Used mobile phones were sold to yellow cattle or privately recycled. Although the price may be higher, is it safe? the answer is negative. Yesterday, CCTV reported that the old mobile phones sold by users can restore mobile phone information through some “data recovery” software. Such information includes highly personal information such as text messages, photos, and videos. Yesterday, Yangguang also quoted experts saying that even if you use the phone to restore the factory settings, it is impossible to completely delete all the information.

Wang Yanhui said, in fact, this is a reason with the computer hard drive, delete function is not a true "delete", but temporarily "forget". "Only large files are repeatedly stored, completely covering the entire storage space is really deleted, so that even if the data is restored, it is also the recently stored large files that are insignificant."

In the protection of personal information, some people think of ways to destroy and abandon used mobile phones. Wang Yanhui said to this, from the perspective of environmental protection, this approach is not appropriate, because some mobile phone parts and components are particularly strong in pollution.

"In addition to wanting to get data from old mobile phones, more mobile phone recycling companies are acquiring chips for used mobile phones. According to Wang Yanhui, the final flow of these old and new mobile phones is nothing more than two. The first is to be disassembled and then recycled. Precious metals and some parts; the second is to get cell phone chips.

"These waste mobile phone chips will become the core components of the Shanzhai mobile phone. After a series of assembly, it will once again flow to the market. At present, this kind of chip has become a stable mobile phone chip supplier for the Shanzhai mobile phone," said Wang Yanhui.

The industry proposes that supervision needs to be put in place Given the challenges faced by how to dispose of used mobile phones, well-known observer Xiang Ligang said that from a safety and technology perspective, terminal manufacturers are better ways to conduct professional recycling, but they need certain policy support. .

It is understood that most mobile phone brands do not introduce waste mobile phone recycling services except very few brands. Even Apple, which launched the service, did not say that the recycling price was low, but also added various conditions such as “non-jailbreaking” and “licensing”, and users’ enthusiasm was not high.

Wang Yanhui said that for the disposal of used mobile phones, one party should promote the development of related companies, and supervision should also be put in place. “In addition to the supervision of information security, environmental protection should also be taken into account. Disposal of used mobile phones should also be included in the “Regulations on the Management of the Recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”),” Wang Yanhui suggested.

It is understood that the scope of implementation of the "Regulations" that China began to implement in 2011 covers refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, washing machines, computers, etc., but mobile phones are not yet listed.