According to experts, the recent news about a college student whose intimate photos were made public after she sent her iPhone in for repairs is a reminder for users to keep their data secure.
What should you do before sending your iPhone in for repair?
Apple settled a lawsuit with a 21-year-old woman after she sent her iPhone to a repair center in 2016, only to discover that workers had uploaded personally explicit images and videos from the phone to her Facebook account during the repair process. The company reportedly paid the woman millions of dollars to settle the case. It’s a risk many people take when getting their phones repaired.
“When you take your phone in for repair, it’s not just a device, it’s a collection of your personal data,” privacy expert Pankaj Srivastava, CEO and founder of management consulting firm PracticalSpeak, said in an email interview. “Most consumers don’t yet understand that security is only as good as its weakest link. In this scenario, the weakest link might be you, the consumer.”
Attila Tomaschek, a researcher at the website ProPrivacy, said in an email interview that most places where you get your phone repaired are honest, so the chance that your personal data will be read and misused is quite small.
