India is recognised as one of the biggest smartphone markets among brands across all price segments. In recent years, many smartphone users have rapidly upgraded to new-generation phones due to upgraded features, deeper AI integration, and other factors. However, the majority of these buyers are not reselling their old smartphones.

According to a survey of 8,000 respondents released by re-commerce giant Cashify, it highlighted that over 69% of smartphone users in India hesitate to sell their old phones due to fears of data security. For the first time, data privacy has become a serious concern over upgrading to newer models

Privacy over price

The study highlighted that the majority of smartphone users avoid reselling, but 56.6% of respondents have sold or exchanged a device in the past. However, 74% admitted that they are concerned about their personal data being misused after a resale. 

Nakul Kumar, Co-Founder of Cashify, said, “Devices today carry years of personal, financial, and identity data.”

“As resale volumes scale, data safety cannot remain an individual burden. It needs to be treated as a default responsibility of organised platforms... supported by clear policy frameworks,” he added. 

Nearly half of the respondents ranked data privacy and security as their top priority when choosing where to sell a device; however, 29.5% prioritise getting a higher resale value. 

Does 'Factory Reset' work?

The survey also revealed significant gaps in consumer confidence about the factory reset. Over 83.3% of users said they perform a factory reset before reselling their smartphones, and  41.1% believe that a factory reset may not permanently erase all data. On the other hand, 31% said they were able to recover deleted data from an old phone.

Smartphone users demand regulation and certified deletion of data

The study revealed that smartphone buyers are demanding stricter regulations for reselling old phones. 87.2% of respondents support stricter laws that govern data deletion before smartphones are resold. Nearly 68.6% of respondents said they would trust resale platforms more if they offered certified secure data deletion services. This highlights that consumer are more aware of their data privacy rights.