A couple years back, I handed my Samsung Galaxy S1 down to a friend. When she got it she browsed the file system out of curiosity and noticed that it had retained private information; both from applications, as well as content I generated (e.g. pictures). While she promised to do a write-up of all the information left behind, she never did (flake!). This is obviously a problem for those who reset their phone thinking it is truly wiped clean, and then hand it off to a friend, sell it, or trade it in for credit.
The other day, a relative and I both upgraded our phones. Him from a Galaxy S2 to a S5, and me from a Galaxy S3 to a S5. So I figured why not check both out to see if they did the same. Cliff notes: The Samsung Galaxy S2 (model SGH-T989) ‘factory reset’ leaves a lot of personal information behind, while the Samsung Galaxy S3 (model SGH-T999) does not. It certainly does not delete your content.
Here is what I found left behind on the Galaxy S2. Directories for installed applications that did not get deleted, or deleted entirely:
\CamScanner
\foursquare
\gameloft
\Intsig
\Lazylist
\telenav
\data\flixster
\convertpad
files:
\telenav70\sdlogs\4\22\2014042208.txt
\telenav70\sdlogs\5\23\2014052320.txt
\Photo Editor\2014-03-30 19.11.22.jpg
(personal picture)
\lookout\log.txt
\Intsig\CamScanner\.log\log-2013-12-25_21-59-09.log
\DCIM\Camera
(55 personal pictures)
\contactBackup\contacts.csv
\contactBackup\contacts.pdf
(both contain full list of contacts: name and phone #. this is from an app that backed up contact info)
\Android\data\com.zynga.words\cache\FBImages
(three images, FB avatar pics of players)
\Android\data\com.facebook.katana\cache\.facebook_-372648771.jpg
(private image from FB)
\tmp_fsquare.jpg
\tmp_fsq
(a PNG thumbnail of avatar selected for the app)
The Galaxy S3 (model SGH-T999) that I used pretty heavily, was much better after factory reset. I found the following left behind:
\Phone\Application\SMemo
(didn’t use this app despite installing it. files suggests private info may be available after reset)
All pictures, contact info, and information from applications is gone. So from the Galaxy S1 to the Galaxy S3, Samsung figured out the ‘Factory Wipe’ finally.
