Trading in your phone?

If you’re thinking about upgrading to a new phone, make sure you remove your personal information before you trade it in. Why? Because your phone could have sensitive, personal information on it (your passwords, account numbers, emails, text messages, photos, or videos). If that information ends up in the wrong hands, someone could use it to wreak havoc: open accounts in your name, spend your money, hack into your email, or take over your social media accounts.

Here’s how to remove your personal information before you trade in your phone.

[Just got a new phone? Find out how to protect it and your data. These tips work for old phones, too!]

Step 1. Back It Up

If you’re going to trade in your phone, the first thing you should do is back up your data.

How To

• Back up your data on an iPhone
• Back up your data on an Android phone

Step 2. Remove SIM and SD Cards

If your phone has a SIM card, it may store your personal information. Remove the SIM card. If you’ll keep the same phone number, you may be able to transfer your SIM card to your new phone. But if you don’t re-use the SIM card, destroy it. If your phone has an SD memory card,  remove it.

How To

• Remove an SD card from an Android phone

Step 3. Erase Your Personal Information

Remove information from your old phone by restoring or resetting it. After you restore, or reset your phone, confirm that you erased things like your contacts, texts, photos, videos, and browsing history.

How To

• Restore your iPhone to factory settings
• Reset your Android phone to factory settings

Step 4. Disconnect Your Phone From Accounts and Devices

Before you turn in the phone, double check that it’s no longer connected to your online accounts or other devices.

• If your phone was paired to another device, like a watch or a vehicle, make sure it’s un-paired.
• Make sure that passwords for your accounts or Wi-Fi are no longer saved on the phone.
• If you use 2-step verification or multi-factor authentication to log in to any accounts, remove your phone from the list of trusted devices.
• If you’re not keeping your phone number, change the number on file with any accounts or services that may be using it to identify you.