The storage of personal and confidential data on mobile phones requires users to be mindful of security and to take steps to protect their information, AMTA CEO Chris Althaus said.

Mr Althaus said smart phones have capacity to hold a lot of personal information, including financial information, company records and contact lists, and it was important for people to ensure the security of such information. He said the mobile phone industry took the issue very seriously and advised its customers on the steps to take to ensure that confidential information was deleted when they decided to either sell the phone or give it to friends or family.

He was answering questions from the magazine Choice, which is doing an article on what happens to people’s personal information stored in their mobile phones when they are disposed of via recycling.

Mr Althaus said: “Consumers can be confident if they follow the manufacturers’ advice on company websites and consult their phone manuals they can wipe clean the memories of their phones and ensure that the data is unuseable.”

Mr Althaus said when people decided to get rid of their mobile phones and get new models they should consider recycling. MobileMuster, which is the official recycling scheme of the mobile phone industry in Australia, has collected more than 499 tonnes of mobile phones including 3.5 million batteries and handsets for recycling. It is fully funded by industry and free to consumers.

The mobile phone industry in Australia is the only electrical and electronic industry to implement a voluntary product stewardship scheme for the recovery and recycling of its end of life products. MobileMuster collects mobile phone handsets, batteries, chargers and accessories from a network of more than 3500 drop-off points across Australia.

Mr Althaus said: “In Australia people tend to upgrade or exchange their mobile phone every 18 to 24 months and an average three out of four people in Australia having at least one old mobile phone at home.

“That’s approximately 16 million old mobile phones lying about in people’s homes or offices. Just one tonne of old circuit boards from these discarded phones yields the same amount of precious metals as 110 tonnes of gold ore, 123 tonnes of silver bearing ore and 11 tonnes of copper sulphide ore, so recycling makes a lot of sense.

“It is a win-win for the environment because it not only helps reduce carbon emissions it also conserves scarce resources, such as gold, copper and silver found in circuit boards and plastics in handset casings that are then turned into useful products such as plastic fence posts, jewellery and stainless steel.

“By using recycled mobile phone materials we can avoid between 60 to 90% of the greenhouse gases that would normally be emitted when making these useful products from raw materials.”

Mr Althaus said MobileMuster takes very seriously the issue of security of phones that are handed in to the program for recycling. All phones are recycled - none are refurbished or resold for reuse, which, of course, helps to ensure that personal data is secure and won’t fall into the wrong hands.

MobileMuster guards against theft from recycling repositories by providing lockable recycling units for retailers and other sites and places an anti-theft device in collection units. It advises collection points to ensure that recycling units are placed in a secure place.

Mr Althaus said: “All collectors for MobileMuster agree to terms and conditions that ensure that components handed in to MobileMuster become the property of AMTA and cannot be used for any purpose other than recycling.

“We place a warning sign on recycling units requesting consumers to remove their personal information and destroy their SIM cards before placing in a recycling unit.”

All pick-ups from collections points are tracked electronically through to delivery to the recycler. Standard security tools such as Closed Circuit TVs are installed at contracted courier and recycler depots. For mobiles sent in for recycling by post standard Australia Post security controls apply.

For more information on MobileMuster go to www.mobilemuster.com.au