A Verizon customer ordered a refurbished phone—and discovered it still contained Mobile Device Management software from its previous corporate owner. When Verizon attempted to disable the MDM, the system remotely deleted all the customer's personal data without warning. MDM is a monitoring tool designed for corporate use only; it should never reach a consumer. This failure, covered by Ars Technica, exposes serious gaps in Verizon's refurbishment quality control. The company apparently didn't verify that corporate software was completely removed before reselling the phone. The incident also raises troubling questions about what access carriers retain over devices they've sold, and what safeguards exist to prevent unexpected data deletion.

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