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UK: There is an interesting new report out by Which? Magazine, which is a consumer organisation in the UK. The Magazine bought a number of PCs from eBay apparently, and was able to recover thousands of files from the hard disks.
Their conclusion was that the only way to permanently get rid of the files is to take a hammer to the hard disk – on the basis that it’s the only surefire way to damage the disk enough beyond recognition.
(As an aside, remember Mission Impossible 3? There were two laptops toasted in a scene where a grenade goes off in a room – and yet latterly they were able to recover information from one of the hard disk platters that was “ruined” – see, movies are an accurate representation of real life) 
Anyway, I digress – my point was going to be whether you do, or don’t, manage the data on your mobile device well. It’s often stated that a lot of people store very sensitive information like Bank card PINs in their mobiles, and in fact sometimes even the standard data itself (like contacts) might be ‘valuable’ if you are a politician, or celebrity!
A lot of people I think rely on the ‘master reset’ option on mobile device to erase all data on-device now, before selling or passing it on – but I know at least one device that doesn’t totally wipe ALL data when a master reset is done – likely because what it actually does is restore factory SETTINGS, rather than deleting user data..!
So that said, do we know for sure that all the data has been removed for the memory on mobile devices when we have “reset” them? Quite possibly no. Which means, according to the PC logic, that you should take a hammer to your old mobile….maybe! 
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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