It can be scary to give your smartphone to a technician for repair. Will the repairman be able to decipher your credit card information? Will they come across your tax records? What about those delicate pictures?
When it comes to phone repair shop in Newcastle, you have every right to feel worried. A woman claimed that an Apple repair contractor leaked her personal iPhone images by posting them to her Facebook account, leading to a recent lawsuit settlement with Apple for millions of dollars. We have no reason to believe that repair personnel rarely download images or personal information in a more covert manner, notwithstanding the exceptionally aggressive nature of the leak’s method.
Therefore, the next time your gadget has a cracked screen or a dead battery, take all necessary precautions to protect the private information and material on it before giving it to someone else.
You can find yourself in a bind if you can’t even get your device to switch on, so this does require that it typically still be usable.
The Safest Option Is To Backup And Factory Reset Your Smartphone
The best way to safeguard your data is to factory reset your device and back up your files, which you should be doing anyway. This makes sure there is no sensitive data left on it when you deliver it to the repair facility.
1. Backup your device
Backup your device’s data to a cloud storage service or an external hard disk. The cloud backup services offered by Apple and Android, to iCloud and Google Drive, respectively, protect data such as your contacts, calendar events, apps, language settings, etc.
2. Factory-reset your device to delete your data
You can start removing information from your smartphone that you don’t want others to see after backing up your data, or you can wipe your device entirely. Learn how to perform a factory reset on your Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone. In reality, factory resetting your gadget might be able to solve any problems you were having with its functionality.
Learn more about cleaning your iPhone or Android, which is also the step you should take before selling or transferring it to another person.
3. Reinstate your data and files after repairs
You can download all of your prior data and files from the cloud or an external backup after your device has been fixed. Nevertheless, it might be a good moment to clean up your device.
Secondary Method: Encrypt Your Sensitive Data
A severe measure is to reset your device to factory settings before repairs. If you don’t want to do that, you can password-protect your documents, images, applications, or even a whole disk so that no one else can access them.
You may secure your documents or hard drives with built-in encryption technology on some devices.
On Mac
You can encrypt your entire hard drive or just specific files, such a PDF or spreadsheet. Additionally, you can secure a single folder with a password (by making a secure disk image):
- Open Disk Utility.
- Click File > New Image > Image from Folder… at the top.
- Select the folder you want to safeguard.
- Choose a level of encryption and enter a password.
- Choose read/write for Image Format.
- Save the file.
- Confirm that the encrypted folder was formed, then destroy the original folder.
On Windows
Learn how to encrypt a file on a Windows machine here.
On Android
You may save your documents, photos, and even programs in the pre-installed, password-protected Secure Folder on the majority of Samsung smartphones. Similar features on other Android phones are available.
The iPhone lacks a feature that enables password protection for a particular file or folder. If your device lacks encryption capabilities, you can download third-party programs like Dropbox that let you password-protect your data. Before using them, take a look at the terms and conditions.
Basic Method: Sign Out Of All Your Apps And Accounts
Is the previous list too extensive? At the very least, make sure to close all of your apps and accounts on your device.
This includes your…
- Email accounts
- Google and iCloud accounts
- Social media apps, such as Facebook and Messenger
- Banking accounts
- Work tools like Slack and Zoom
Bring Your Smartphone To The Best Phone Repair Shop in Newcastle
Finally, taking your smartphone to Nano Repairs, a reputable and authorized smartphone repair facility, is the best option to prevent the need to secure your data.
You can get in touch with us using this contact form if you have any queries regarding an ongoing repair or if there is anything else we can do to assist you.
