Shocked to find stranger's data in smartphone
AsiaOne
Friday, Oct 21, 2011
Account executive Nio Jian Qiang received a shock when he retrieved his faulty Samsung phone back from Samsung's service centre. He found someone's photos, documents and music stored in his mobile device.
He told The Straits Times that he found out someone else's microSD card was in his phone.
And there were photos of secondary school students wearing their uniforms, in a classroom setting, with the school logo clearly identifiable. The school has also verified the card belongs to one of its students.
The teacher of the student revealed that the girl's older brother had lost her handphone in an Internet cafe in Thomson in July.
The storage card also contained school-related documents, screenshots of text message conversations and sensitive login data for mobile social networks such as Facebook and OpenFeint.
But a Samsung spokesman said the card belonged to a former technician from the company.
Mr Nio revealed that he had sent in his phone for servicing without an SD card, but his Galaxy S2 handset came back with one.
The spokesman said that Samsung views the incident "very seriously". She also added the company's service centres "only take in the handset or accessory, and will return the SIM card and SD card to the customer immediately".
Smartphone users should remove any external storage cards from their phones and make a backup of data before sending the phone for repair or servicing. They can also perform a factory reset, and jot down the unique International Mobile Equipment Identity code and serial number to ask their telco providers to do a remote lockdown and data wipe if they lose their phones.
AsiaOne
Friday, Oct 21, 2011
Account executive Nio Jian Qiang received a shock when he retrieved his faulty Samsung phone back from Samsung's service centre. He found someone's photos, documents and music stored in his mobile device.
He told The Straits Times that he found out someone else's microSD card was in his phone.
And there were photos of secondary school students wearing their uniforms, in a classroom setting, with the school logo clearly identifiable. The school has also verified the card belongs to one of its students.
The teacher of the student revealed that the girl's older brother had lost her handphone in an Internet cafe in Thomson in July.
The storage card also contained school-related documents, screenshots of text message conversations and sensitive login data for mobile social networks such as Facebook and OpenFeint.
But a Samsung spokesman said the card belonged to a former technician from the company.
Mr Nio revealed that he had sent in his phone for servicing without an SD card, but his Galaxy S2 handset came back with one.
The spokesman said that Samsung views the incident "very seriously". She also added the company's service centres "only take in the handset or accessory, and will return the SIM card and SD card to the customer immediately".
Smartphone users should remove any external storage cards from their phones and make a backup of data before sending the phone for repair or servicing. They can also perform a factory reset, and jot down the unique International Mobile Equipment Identity code and serial number to ask their telco providers to do a remote lockdown and data wipe if they lose their phones.
