Reas And Be Aware

What Your Cell Phone Knows
Cell phones today are much more sophisticated than those manufactured only a few years ago. Using them to make telephone calls is only the beginning. You can also use them to send and receive e-mail, browse the Internet, take photos, etc.
All these functions leave a trail that may be difficult to securely erase. What's more, the legal status of these records is, to put it mildly, uncertain. At the very least, these records carry less legal protection than the content of cellular conversations themselves. It's not uncommon for police to seize cell phones and retrieve email messages, photos, text messages, etc., all without a search warrant.
Ask yourself: What information in your cell phone's memory would you prefer not to be in the hands of police? Of a business competitor? Or, for that matter, of your spouse or partner?
If the answer is "plenty," then you need to take steps to securely delete information from your cell phone's internal memory. Should the information you need to do so isn't in your cell phone's operating manual, check out a free service from http://www.wirelessrecycling.com/ .
This website lets you choose the brand and model number of your cell phone, and then displays the exact commands you need to delete every piece of data from it.
When you replace your cell phone, repeat this process. Also, remove the phone's SIM card, if it has one. Your SIM card is uniquely tied to you, and if ends up in the wrong hands, you could be falsely tied to a crime committed by someone else.
Once you've deleted the data in your phone and removed the SIM card, double-check to make sure your address book, call logs, and other data stores really are empty. Then you can sell your old phone on eBay, or donate it to a charity, with confidence that any information on it can't come back to haunt you.