Certain Refurbished Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi Tablets May Still Have Prior Users' Data Stored
Motorola Mobility said that approximately 100 out of a batch of 6,200 Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablets that were refurbished by Motorola Mobility may not have been completely cleared of the original owner's data prior to resale.
Motorola said that the affected tablets were resold by Woot.com between October and December 2011. Motorola confirmed that any refurbished units sold outside the time period in question were properly refurbished.
The information that may be accessible to the purchasers of the impacted refurbished tablets may include any information that the original user elected to store on the tablet. It is possible that users might have stored photographs and documents. They may have also stored user names and passwords for email and social media accounts, as well as other password-protected sites and applications.
Motorola is offering its ustomers who purchased and then returned a Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet to Amazon.com, Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale, eBay, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sam's Club, or Staples and a few other independent retailers between March and October 2011 a complimentary two-year membership of Experian's ProtectMyID Alert to mitigate any risks. Original owners are advised to contact Experian at 1-866-926-9803 to sign up for the credit monitoring service. These original owners are also advised to take precautionary measures to protect their identity, such as changing their email and social media passwords. Original owners who performed a factory data reset prior to returning the device are not impacted.
Motorola is also pursuing the return of the impacted refurbished units to ensure that the memory of each device is cleared. The company's customers who purchased a refurbished Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet from Woot.com between October and December 2011 are encouraged to visit motorola.com/xoomreturn or to call Motorola Mobility Customer Support at 1-800-734-5870, select Option 1, in order to determine if their tablet is affected.
"Motorola sincerely regrets and apologizes for any inconvenience this situation has caused the affected customers," the company said.
The information that may be accessible to the purchasers of the impacted refurbished tablets may include any information that the original user elected to store on the tablet. It is possible that users might have stored photographs and documents. They may have also stored user names and passwords for email and social media accounts, as well as other password-protected sites and applications.
Motorola is offering its ustomers who purchased and then returned a Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet to Amazon.com, Best Buy, BJ's Wholesale, eBay, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sam's Club, or Staples and a few other independent retailers between March and October 2011 a complimentary two-year membership of Experian's ProtectMyID Alert to mitigate any risks. Original owners are advised to contact Experian at 1-866-926-9803 to sign up for the credit monitoring service. These original owners are also advised to take precautionary measures to protect their identity, such as changing their email and social media passwords. Original owners who performed a factory data reset prior to returning the device are not impacted.
Motorola is also pursuing the return of the impacted refurbished units to ensure that the memory of each device is cleared. The company's customers who purchased a refurbished Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi tablet from Woot.com between October and December 2011 are encouraged to visit motorola.com/xoomreturn or to call Motorola Mobility Customer Support at 1-800-734-5870, select Option 1, in order to determine if their tablet is affected.
"Motorola sincerely regrets and apologizes for any inconvenience this situation has caused the affected customers," the company said.