Disused smartphones ring warning note

Lying idle

Research by the China Association of Circular Economy shows that 54.2 percent of mobiles are left idle in people's homes. Zhu confirmed that a major reason for this is fears over personal information leaks.

Zhu's view is supported by Yang Ziyi, senior program officer at the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology, who took part in the association's survey.

"Asked why they don't sell mobiles they no longer use, many people said they had no idea about where their devices would end up, or whether they would cause pollution when disposed of," Yang said. "Some said they were afraid that their information would be sold after being extracted from the devices."

A Beijing resident, who gave her name only as Chu, and who relies heavily on smartphones, said, "I have a small pile of disused phones at home."

She said she dared not sell them, as she forgot to make backup copies of the information in the devices and fears that her personal details will be leaked.

Si Jia, 23, who also lives in Beijing, said he initially doubted that if he sold his phones, their value would be fairly assessed, or that he would receive a reasonable price for them.

However, he finally decided to sell his iPhone 12 Pro Max for 4,700 yuan ($680) after visiting an Aihuishou store.

"After seeing how they deleted the information in my device, and how they assessed the phone's value, I no longer had any such concerns," he said.

Wu Yufeng, dean of the School of Circular Economy at Beijing University of Technology, said that in recent years breakthroughs have been made in the technologies used for irreparable information removal.

The main problem behind people's reluctance to sell phones they no longer use is that they sometimes don't trust those who will remove their information.

Wu said that to end these concerns, the government should draw up technological standards and introduce official authentication for the irreparable removal of information.

Stressing that people have an emotional attachment to their phones, Wu also called for manufacturers to improve their designs.

"The mobile phone is not only a device, it contains records of people's work, along with photos and videos about their lives," he said.

Wu added that one way to address mistrust and leave photos and videos intact is to make it easy for people to dismantle the storage hardware in their phones and read it via computer.