Beijing: A young woman was shocked to find
her deleted naked photos from her broken iPhone recovered by a
repairman who displayed openly in a phone store in China`s
Zhejiang Province.
Experts have warned that smart phones such as iPhone
may not protect the owner`s privacy and deleted photos and
other data can be easily recovered with software, the
Zhejiang-based Qianjiang Evening News reported today.
The woman`s nightmare began on Tuesday when a man named
Liu Shenghao said on his Weibo microblog that a woman customer
sent her broken iPhone to a phone store for repair and a
repairman not only fixed her phone but also recovered her
naked photos she had deleted a long time ago.
Liu said that the repairman copied the photos to sample
phones at the store, making them visible to every customer.
A store manager admitted that a worker downloaded those
naked photos and the woman client was stunned to see her naked
photos in a sample phone as she came to pick up her iPhone,
Shanghai Daily reported.
The woman`s boyfriend rushed to the store for explanation
and alerted the police, the paper said.
Police are investigating to find if the repairman
recovered the photos intentionally.
The incident has sparked a heated discussion among
netizens. Many questioned why deleted pictures can still be
recovered in the smart phone.
A phone repairman surnamed Zhu told the newspaper
that it is possible to recover deleted data using a kind of
software available on many websites.
Zhu said iPhones of higher versions are equipped with
iCloud application which allows users to upload data to a
server.
With the right username and password, the deleted data
can be reloaded from the server, Zhu said.
"The woman probably uploaded her photos to the server and
her username and password were used by the repairman to
retrieve the deleted pictures," Zhu said.
Experts are warning smart phone holders to keep secret of
their usernames and passwords and turn off the data uploading
services such as iCloud before they send their phones for
repair works.
PTI
