Cell Phone Data Recovery

This tip is provided by Diane Ebersole with the State Bar of Michigan's Practice Management Resource Center.

If your cell phone has a major failure, the equivalent of a hard drive crash, can you recover all the data that was on the phone? You can do an Internet search for “cell phone backup software” to see the many options available to backup this data. Your cell phone provider may have a product designed to work specifically with their line of phones. There are even free applications. OxyBook Free 1.1.0 is one example of a free application: http://3d2f.com/programs/4-682-oxybook-free-download.shtml . As with many products there are upgrades available for a charge.

We are not recommending a specific product, but recommend that you think about the possibility of losing all the data that is currently stored on your cell phone. Can you afford the time to try and recover all of the data? Do you have documents stored on the phone that are at risk? Have you added a memory card? Is it encrypted?

Do you have any security set on your phone? Do you have a PIN code programmed into your phone with a short timeout set before you have to reenter the code? If your phone is stolen, is there confidential client data on the device? If there is data, and it is lost, what are the ethical implications? Using a PIN on your phone is a pain! Using the full capabilities of the phone can be a great time saver. Weigh the options and make the decisions that protect you and your clients.