- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
T-Mobile sued after employee stole nude images from customer phone during trade-in::T-Mobile has been sued again for failing to protect consumer data after an employee at one of its Washington stores stole nude images off of a customer’s phone.
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The employee was and is a scum bag human, but what dumbass trades a phone with nudes on it‽ I wouldn’t even get a phone serviced with nudes.
Most people aren’t all that clear on the distinction of things being “on” a phone. When they switch to their next phone and their photos immediately sync onto it from whatever cloud stuff they use, they may have the illusion that the new phone is where their photos “are” now and not consider the continuing existence of the data on the old one.
Basic technical literacy should be everyone’s responsibility and would be in a perfect world, but any IT person will tell you that it can never be assumed of anyone. However on the bright side, stories like this blowing up in the mainstream news will knock a little awareness into more end-user skulls every now and then. Send it to all the non-techies you know and care about!
Sad but true.
As one of those IT people (who was taught on punched cards), I’d had some hope that by the 21st century only GenX and Boomers would have this issue.
That young adults don’t know this stuff is very frustrating.
Most people cant explain how a toaster works - it may as well be magic to them.
It’s genuinely crazy. I’ve had to remove viruses from my friends (16 or 17 at the time) and just didn’t understand. Why are you allowing things to make admin changes? Or just having to explain the difference to people what a “zip drive” is and a USB drive. As things get more “convenient” tech literacy definitely goes down.
So what do you do if you literally cant wipe the phone I.e broken screen? Just never have anything there to begin with?
Plug it into a computer and delete the files that way?
Youve never actually had that happen if you think its that easy.
Guys no…
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You cant wipe a phone remotely with your google sign on unless “find my device” is enabled, which it never was.
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My phone does not just give access automatically to any device plugged into it. You are REQUIRED to give permission from the phone. Which cant be done because the screen is fucked.
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Your phone SHOULDNT be accessible in this scenario because allowing any device to just plug in and download everything with no authentication is a security risk.
It depends on how the phone is setup and whether or not you have plugged in to a pc before. It sounds like it’s you that has that no idea.
Most android phones (can’t speak to Apple) are pretty much plug and play via USB. Plug it in and browse the files on it, it’s slow as hell and may be retrievable by software designed to undelete files but it’s doable, you may have to approve the connection on the phone but if you have plugged it in prior then you probable don’t have to.
Dude the goddamned phone requires that you confirm permission to access or manipulate anything on that phone. You cant just plug a usb cable in and fuck with everything. What the hell sort of phones do you guys buy that it just does that with no security measures?
Sounds like you don’t understand tech at all. Some of us have been using smart phones since palm and blackberry. Earlier versions of Android didn’t need the confirmation at all, assuming that it was defaulted to file access.
I’ve been android since the beginning and my last few phones (all pixels) I don’t remember having to approve the usb connection after the first time.
Can you plug a random phone into a pc and access files? Probably not.
Can you plug your own phone into a pc it’s been connected to prior and access files even with a broken screen? More likely yes, than no.
You and the other minions downvoting me should try reading my entire comments as many times ad needed for you to grasp the very basic concepts at play.
And to repeat. You have no idea how the file system on android works. You most definitely can delete/backup/etc the photos, screenshots, etc on the phone via USB. You can not easily access app data as thats encrypted and stored elsewhere.
You kids need to get off the internet before you hurt yourself.
This is starting to feel more and more like reddit, that’s not a good thing.
This is starting to feel more and more like reddit, that’s not a good thing.
Huh, that’s odd. The same user having the same shitty experience across multiple platforms with no other discernable commonality. What a puzzle, we’ll never figure it out.
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Actually yes, but that’s just old man me yelling at the clouds. Nudes are just so pointless, especially of oneself.
People forget, my ex sold her laptop on eBay, but forgot to wipe it and it had a bunch of nudes she had sent me over the years on it. After she realized what she did she told him to wipe the computer because she forgot to 🤦♂️ this was like a decade ago before BitLocker/encryption was standard on most laptops. The dude definitely saw her naked.
Two really dumb people and Tmobile is going to pay. Also, never trade in your phone. I keep the previous generation as a backup in case I lose or break it, and I take a hammer to the older ones on rotation.
By the time I’m ready to part with a phone, they offer peanuts for the trade in. I might as well keep it and do something else with it
Actually the last few times, Verizon has called me to upgrade for little or no money, sometimes paying more for my old phone than I did when it was new. I asked once why they do it, and it is some sort of loyalty program.
Assuming you are on a plan where there is just a monthly hardware surcharge, you likely pay 20% of the price of the phone up front, and about 200% of the price of the phone by the time they recommend you change hardware. Even a crappy phone is almost a thousand dollars now, and they can still be worth hundreds used after a few years, there are many places older used phones can be sent and sold.
Most of those types of plans have about a 50-75 dollar a month hardware charge built into the plan. A “bring your own device” plan is like 20-30 dollars a month. 50 dollars a month for 2 years is 1200 dollars. 75 dollars a month for 3 years is 2700 dollars. Pretty easy to fit the price of a phone in there somewhere.
Also their favorite customer, is the one that has a hardware fee in their plan, but then buys a new phone themselves from a third party. For people that plan to buy their own phone, make sure you are on a “bring your own device” plan. Save yourself hundreds of dollars a year. I know that part doesn’t pertain to the person I am replying to, but I have talked to alot of people that brought their own device and were still on a 70-115$ monthly phone plan.
The phone company won’t tell you about the other options, you have to ask, and some of the bigger companies don’t even offer a plan without a built-in hardware surcharge. Then you better hope you have another option in your area. Most of the littler phone companies with dumb names aren’t big enough to even offer hardware, so if you were ever curious why their plans can be 1/3rd the price, they are byod plans.
you can run octoprint on old phones, that’s pretty fun.
I hope you remove the batteries first before going at it with the hammer, or else you’re going to be breathing in some really nasty fumes.
Plus damaging the battery could cause it to ignite anywhere between an hour to several days after it takes damage.
And unless you actually destroy the storage, you are in the exact same situation. Also, I assume someone taking a hammer to a device is not recycling it properly.
Phones have a factory reset for a reason
Man, that sounds exciting!
Particularly if you’re in someone else’s house, of course.
Yikes that’s scary.
but breaking bad does it
Are there people out there who are not factory resetting their phones before they trade them in?
…what?
There are people out there that don’t know where the settings on their phone are
