Is it OK to trade in broken phone? Or is data accessible?

Rothgarr

I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max that got run over repeatedly by cars. The screen is smashed, it won't charge or turn on. It doesn't show up in iCloud services. I already replaced it with an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

I didn't know this, but Verizon will give me a few hundred bucks for the broken phone. But I have no way of wiping it (either via iCloud or by plugging it into a computer). So I'm paranoid about my data on the phone.

Part of me says I'm safe since everything is locked up with Face ID and Passcode. But part of me also assumes Verizon has hardware/software to unlock the phone.

I guess I'm not worried about pictures, but rather my email accounts, my Tesla key, bank accounts, eTrade account, Coinbase account, etc...

Would you still trade it in? Am I being paranoid?

VishNub

Personally I wouldn’t worry about it.

Even if the phone still worked Verizon will just immediately wipe it anyways.

But since it’s already run over, you could bash it a few more times just to be extra sure.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

you could theoretically recover the data if you yanked it's storage and had some way to read it (assuming it's physically intact enough, anyway)

but verizon et al mostly just recovering materials; a phone that damaged will probably just get broken down for parts (tbh I'm kinda surprised they'll pay for one in that bad a condition)

Tofystedeth

Eat it You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

you could theoretically recover the data if you yanked it's storage and had some way to read it (assuming it's physically intact enough, anyway)

but verizon et al mostly just recovering materials; a phone that damaged will probably just get broken down for parts (tbh I'm kinda surprised they'll pay for one in that bad a condition)

It's a new promotion they just started. Trying to get new customers etc.

Rothgarr

Tofystedeth wrote: »

Eat it You Nasty Pig. wrote: »

you could theoretically recover the data if you yanked it's storage and had some way to read it (assuming it's physically intact enough, anyway)

but verizon et al mostly just recovering materials; a phone that damaged will probably just get broken down for parts (tbh I'm kinda surprised they'll pay for one in that bad a condition)

It's a new promotion they just started. Trying to get new customers etc.

Yup, up to $440 for broken phones. Since mine is only one generation old, I'm hopeful for a couple of hundred dollars...

zepherin

They will part it out, and if there was anything recoverable they'd wipe it. However there are ways to recover the information. But they would require a great deal more effort than I think anyone from verizon is going to put into it.

Casual

Are there ways to get past phone locks? My understanding was even the FBI and such are complaining about not being able to do it.

zepherin

Casual wrote: »

Are there ways to get past phone locks? My understanding was even the FBI and such are complaining about not being able to do it.

And yet they were able to commission an expert to bypass the phone lock, apparently they paid some 900k for that hack and were grumpy AF about it. Because they didn't want to wait for a lengthy court case with Apple. And honestly any iphone that uses a version of ios that is older than 6 months can be accessed.