A popular method for giving new life to
old cellphones–and one that also benefits a charitable cause–is to
donate them to battered women’s shelters. But we have a
warning to those of you wanting to help others when upgrading your
phone, that’s why our resident un-common sense expert and Dallas Morning
News columnist Benjamin Dover is here to tell us more.
Question 1:
Your column in this morning’s paper was quite an eye-opener.
Tell us why we need to be careful when disposing of our old cellphones.
Answer 1:
One of
my readers was told when they donated his wife’s old cellphone to a local
women’s shelter that the phones were refurbished to dial "911 only" calls,
and that the memory–containing all of your private names and phone
numbers–would be deleted.
Apparently but this wasn’t the case. He received
several calls from New York area codes; he and his wife figured out the
woman who received the phone had an "agent" that suspected her of "setting
up business" on the side. He tried to find out who they were by calling them
one night by using the personal numbers programmed into the old phone by his
wife.
Question 2:
The woman had an "agent"?
Answer 2:
Yeah...I had to re-read his e-mail a couple of times
before I figured out what he meant by the term agent–he meant "pimp" for
those of you following along at home. I’ll sleep much better now, knowing
that some of our charitably-donated cell phones are ending up helping some
working girls in New York.
Question 3:
So what should consumers do to protect themselves from
having private phone numbers end up in the wrong hands?
Answer 3:
Assume nothing and trust no one! And it doesn’t matter
whether you’re donating to charities or giving something like a used
computer to a trusted family member, you’ve gotta cover your backside when
it comes to deleting all of your personal and sometime, very private or
sensitive information.
By the way: I’m not picking on charities–they
do the best they can with what they’ve got–but they’re usually under-staffed
and over-worked...and if anything can slip through the cracks, it will.
NEVER
assume
the recipient of your charitable act will have the technical expertise to
delete a pre-existing directory of phone numbers, or erase a hard drive
loaded with all of your personal and confidential banking information or
correspondence. If you don’t know how to delete an entire directory from a
soon-to-be-former cell phone, stop by the retail storefront of the cell
phone company that sold the phone in the first place, and ask one of their
customer service reps for an assist.
Question 4:
You mentioned computers a moment ago, and with all of
our personal correspondence, e-mails and bank records, it’s really important
to delete the information from your computer whenever you upgrade to a
newer, faster model, isn’t it?
Answer 4:
No question! Computer hard drives are much
harder to erase or "wipe" that most people realize. My resident computer
expert Ronnie Neighbours of
Arlington-based Take It Home Computers tells me: "Most
people fail to properly delete all of their old information on their
computers before turning them loose. We charge $45 to do it right–it takes a
couple of hours–and there are programs that’ll do the same thing. Norton’s
utility program includes a "hard drive wiping" function and costs $30-$50.
Or call the customer service number for the manufacturer of your computer
and ask them who made your hard drive. Locate their website and download the
free "wipe utility" all of them offer."
Question 5: So your final warning to
anyone donating an old cell phone or disposing of an old computer?
Answer 5: You’d better make sure you
thoroughly delete all information from cell phones and laptops before you
give them away or sell them and they (inadvertently) end up in the hands of
the bad guys. And if you don’t know how to do it yourself, that means you’re
probably gonna do it wrong, so spend the time and a few bucks to get it done
right–especially in this day-and-age of rampant identity theft.
Close: For all of Ben’s
cellular-and-cyber-security related tips, check out his award-winning
website at
www.benjamindover.com or you can always link over from our site:
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