Make sure you wipe your phones – StartupSmart

According to comments from Disklabs director Simon Steggles, an analysis of 50 phones sold on eBay found over 60% still contained personal data.

With more and more businesses using smartphones to exchange and handle business data, you need to make sure that when you hand over your phone to its next owner, all of its data is wiped out completely.

If you own an iPhone, this can be easily done be restoring the phone’s factory settings through iTunes. However, if you own a Windows or Android handsets, or a BlackBerry, you need to ensure each piece of data is wiped – check with the manufacturer to see how you can completely format the device.

Pieces of data you will want to delete include phone contacts, email settings, text messages, pictures, applications and any sort of app that connects you to your business. You don’t want to leave confidential data on there and have it wind up in the hands of a competitor. Make sure your staff follow these rules as well for their own business phones.