We are always wary of handing our phones to strangers, in case they steal our personal information and data publicly. But according to recent reports, the repair staff at Google and Apple stores are guilty of doing that exactly, making people worried about getting their phones repaired.

There are a number of high-profile victims of the data theft through repairmen, where a person sent in their phone for repairs and ended up getting their data breached of privacy and leaked publicly. Jane McGonigal, author and designer, is one such victim. In a Twitter thread, she states that her phone was apparently ‘lost’ in a Google repair store, and so she got a replacement. But after a while, her missing phone was used to gain access and steal pictures. The activity log showed that the perpetrator opened a number of pictures in search of sensitive data.

Daniel Romero/Unsplash.You should be wary before giving your phones to repair centers.

As replies to her tweets came in, several people confirmed the same happening to them, where they lost photos, personal data and even money through phones sent for repair to Google. In fact, news of Apple paying $2 million in settlement to a woman whose nude pictures were leaked by Apple repair technicians made rounds on the Internet in June of the previous year.

Clay Banks/Unsplash. Make sure you have erased all personal data before handing in your phone for repair.

It is hoped by users of the Apple and Google gadgets that two tech giants would enable users to do simple repairs and fixtures of their devices at home, thereby minimizing the problem to a great extent. But for the present, there is nothing much a user of these latest gadgets and devices can do on their own other than handing out their phone to a shady technician for repairs. Well, there are some simple measures we can take to ensure that the data loss and breach stays minimum, and that our pictures and personal data remains safe, whenever our phone ends up in some stranger’s hand, mistakenly or by choice.

Sai Kiran Angakani/Unsplash. It is impossible to keep an empty phone at all times, but we can take some steps to prevent data leaks.

The most common answer any tech geek is going to give you is to keep all your personal data off your phone. But this solution is hardly practical, to say the least. We always have at least some part of our personality on our phones, be it pictures, thoughts and writings, social media profiles, contacts and other data. We can at least keep nude pictures and sensitive financial data off the phones if we are being too cautious, but not every person is tech savvy or careful enough to take care of these things at all times.

However, taking some simple steps before sending in your phone for repairs, if given the chance, is to move all your data elsewhere, to a separate cloud or other data storage device. Sign out of all your profiles, and do a factory reset if possible.

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