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How To Protect Your Phone When You Take It In For Repairs

There are several steps you can take to prevent someone who's supposed to be repairing your phone from violating your privacy.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - A woman has filed a lawsuit after a man who was supposed to fix her phone sent a sex video from her email.

Keely Hightower took her phone to a T-Mobile store and noticed the next day a file had been sent from it.

She contacted police.

The employee, Roberto Sanchez-Ramos, pleaded guilty to a computer offense charge and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Hightower also claims Global Innovation Group, which operates the store Sanchez-Ramos worked at, was negligent and invaded her privacy, causing her emotional distress.

While most people may not have racy videos on their phones, many use them for banking or storing other sensitive information.

“When you drop off your phone to get repaired, or you drop off your laptop to get repaired, that repair technician has access to everything,” Brett Kappes of Performance Computer Group in Tampa said. “They're going to login as you. You have to give them your password so they can test it, and so you just need to be aware of that.”

Here's what Kappes suggests:

  • Sign out of your apps, including social media accounts and mobile banking apps. If you have an Android, you may also want to sign out of your Google Chrome and Gmail accounts. If you have an iPhone, you should do the same for your iCloud account.
  • Use the app LastPass, which stores passwords for all of your accounts. That way, they're not in your notes, for anyone to see.
  • Apps like AppLock create a locked photo folder, so you need a password to see what's inside it.
  • Back up your iPhone on your computer before getting it fixed. Then you can delete anything private from the phone and restore the backup once you get it back.

“Ninety-nine percent of shops out there, you can trust them and do the right thing, but it's not a hundred percent, so you have to be careful,” Kappes said.

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