ICO: ‘Millions of Brits don’t know how to remove data from old device’

Approximately 14 million British citizens don’t know how to wipe their personal information and other data from an old device or tech product.

Over a quarter of all British citizens (27%) are going to treat themselves to a new device this Christmas. Therefore, it’s the perfect timing to undo their former daily driver of potentially sensitive data.

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), three in ten adults (29%) are clueless on how to delete information from an old device, like a smartphone or tablet.

Three-quarters of the respondents (75%) are holding on to at least one old device. A fifth of them (20%) admit they do this, because they are worried their personal information will end up in the wrong hands.

Seven out of ten adults in the United Kingdom agree that erasing personal information is important. However, almost a quarter (24%) says it’s too difficult for them to do this.

Young people are the least concerned about their personal information. One in five young people (21%) don’t think it’s important to erase their data. A quarter (23%) do not have concerns about what could happen to their data if they don’t wipe their device.

Suzanne Gordon, Director of Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints, expresses her concerns and emphasizes the importance of erasing personal data from old devices.

“Erasing your personal information from an old device doesn’t need to be difficult, and it means that your data can’t be accessed by anybody else, either by mistake or for malicious purposes such as fraud. For example, a factory reset via the settings can adequately erase your personal information from most mobile phones,” she says in a statement.

To help people in need, the ICO has published instructions online on how to delete data from different devices.

The study was conducted by Savanta, a data market research company, amongst 2,170 adult UK citizens between December 13 and December 16, 2024.