Did I once say it would completely wipe the device? No I did not, so please don't write a passive aggressive reply, I was just trying to help them out.
Easy there, champ! There was
nothing 'passive-aggressive' about the reply. And you
did seem to imply it would completely wipe
[1] the device, because you referred to a factory reset as going 'overboard' compared to just deleting e-mails. Plus you said a factory reset would suck if they changed their mind about suicide, presumably implying it would suck because it
permanently deleted all of their data which they would want to have when continuuing their life.
[1] Just to clarify in case your attitude comes from a place of genuine misunderstanding, my reference to completely wiping the device was referring only to completely wiping the
user data on the device. That is, personal information created by the user since getting the device brand new. For our example, this would be various e-mails, files and browser history pertaining to suicide. I wasn't suggesting that your method (factory reset) would wipe
all of the data, such as system files, information in ROM etc, and leave the device
blank. I was merely stating that your belief seemed to be that factory reset would return the device back to the pristine,
untouched state it was in when brand new. But, as I very politely and non-offensively
stated, that is
not actually what occurs behind the scenes, and the misconception that it does can be a risky one for data security.
BTW, here is a useful tip for determining whether something is intended as passive-aggressive. Identify the paragraph in question, try rewording any perceived passive-aggression into actual
overt aggression, and see if that intended meaning by the writer seems in
any way plausible to you.
So for example with
my response, an overtly aggressive (and totally hypothetical) rewording might be:
Good one, idiot! A factory reset often does not completely wipe the data from a device. Similar to file deletion on a computer, all it does is make the space taken up by your data available for future overwriting. To securely clear any device, you need to securely wipe it, typically involving the deletion of data and the repeated overwriting of the space used by random data. It is easy to find programs that do this.
Now ask yourself, do you think I quoted your explanation and posted my own tip next to an information symbol icon because it was a passive, convoluted way of calling you an idiot? The answer is very clearly
no, incidentally. This method obviously isn't foolproof, because if someone is defensive and paranoid enough, they will see whatever they want to see
regardless of how it is conveyed. But I'm genuinely hopeful you don't fall into that category.
