I used to give my phone upgrades to my daughters because they were very hard on their phones. When I eventually destroyed my Samsung Note 4 2 years ago while trying to fix the screen myself (Yes I broke it because I'm a dumb@$$) I went out and bought a cheap n nasty Samsung J4 Core. The phone screen eventually got smashed but the digitizer kept on working so I kept the phone going. Upgrade time came around last year so this time I thought I would treat myself to a Huawei Y9s. I simply pulled the sim and memory from the J4 and put it in a drawer as is. The Y9s is OK - it has strange problems with Whatsapp and Zoom - for some reason it can't hold the connection on Wifi (Maybe I caused the problems with all my faffing with its security settings) - anyway, I digress. So of course (as it goes with my stupid@$$) (screen protector and all) I drop the Y9 on its face so the glass and digitizer et al is totally smashed. I remove the sim and the memory card and shove them back in the J4. I haven't had the spare cash to have the Y9 repaired so I simply reverted all the software to the J4 (deactivated the Capitec app etc but of course all the common stuff remained on the phone because I couldn't even put the password in when I booted the Y9. Anyhow, I left the Y9 in a drawer for about 3 months and then yesterday I took it in to be repaired.
I hand the phone in (completely discharged without the sim). They replace the screen and charge the phone and when I return an hour later the phone is running and it still has elastic bands around it and traces of glue. They ask me to log in to see if the digitizer works. They then ask me to come back in an hour so that the glue can set and that they can clean off the excess glue. I have a kinda nagging feeling in the back of my mind about my having logged them into my phone so I make a remark and jokingly say to them that they mustn't copy the porn-stash off my phone (No I don't actually keep my porn-stash on my mobile devices for this very reason but again... I digress) I wonder off berating myself for letting them into the phone.
I collect the phone and I notice a couple of really weird things:
1. The date is really odd - I've never seen a totally flat phone be recharged and come up with a date that is just odd (July 2020)
2. There are 3 apps on the phone that I didn't install (AliExpress, Booking.Com and a face recognition app)
3. The phone seems to have automatically updated its firmware which means that they would have had the phone connected to a WiFi network.
4. It looks as if all this stuff happened but that they didn't have enough time to go through the motions of installing the software and agreeing to the terms and conditions and stuff because when I go into the apps they all ask me to do this.
Anyway, there isn't anything incriminating, nasty or dangerous on my phone - I don't use Facebook on the phone but of course I use Netflix, Spotify, Messenger, Whatsapp, email etc and the general Google account is there. With regards to the Google account I block all forms of tracking anyway.
I decided to do an entire re-install of the phone and to change every password that I can think of that may have been on that phone (which isn't a bad thing in itself). I can't see anything ultra suspicious on the phone (and I wanted to rebuild the phone software anyway due to the Whatsapp and Zoom issues)
These are the lessons I learned from this:
1. Keep the minimum amount of crucial / sensitive stuff on your daily phone.
2. Try to put as much of your phone stuff on the memory card so that you can pull it if the phone is destroyed.
3. DON'T GIVE THE REPAIR SHOP your password (like the dumb@$$ that I am).
4. If you do hand the phone in for repair then remove the sim, remove the memory card and deactivate sensitive software like the banking apps etc.
5. Run the battery flat and when it comes to testing time - test it yourself and don't let them see your password.
6. If the have to faff any further with the phone make sure you log out of the phone before handing it back to them.
Maybe I am just being paranoid - but that said - I don't want an AliExpress order being placed against my bank account by some peanut ordering a new flatscreen TV for himself.
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