Refurbished iPhones Retain Past Data

New York, NY (AHN) - As cell phone users prepare the next version of Apple's popular iPhone, reports warn that refurbished iPhones being sold may still contain traces of the past owner.

Just as computer data can be retained after formatting a hard drive, e-mails and other personal information remains after using the recommended iTunes Restore feature.

The news follows a discovery by an Oregon State police detective who retrieved e-mail and other data from an iPhone marked as "out-of-the-box" refurbished. Just as in computers, data stored in unused blocks of an iPhone's flash memory reportedly is left untouched by the most-common method of wiping iPhone data.

To actually erase all iPhone data, a low-level format is required. However, the danger of someone owning your e-mails isn't widespread. Oregon State police used computer forensic techniques to extract the iPhone's 'erased' information.