Motorola Failed to Fully Wipe Batch of Refurbished XOOMs in 2011, User Data Potentially in the Wild

If you purchased and then returned a Motorola XOOM WiFi any time between March and October of 2011, there is a chance that your unit was not fully refurbished properly and then sold again between October and December 2011 on Woot.com. That means that some of your personal information including pictures, documents, usernames or passwords could have been left on your returned device and then sold again to someone as a refurbished unit.

Motorola released a statement moments ago to address the situation. They are offering potentially affected customers a free 2-year Experian ProtectMyID Alert subscription just to be safe. So if you returned a WiFi XOOM to Amazon.com, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale, eBay, Office Max, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, or Staples during that March to October stretch, you will need to contact Experian to get setup with this service.

More details after the break.  

Motorola Mobility Notifies Certain Purchasers of Refurbished Motorola XOOM™ Wi-Fi Tablets of Refurbishment Process Error

Feb. 03, 2012

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Feb. 3, 2012 – Motorola Mobility, Inc. today announced that it has recently learned 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. The affected tablets were resold by Woot.com between October and December 2011. While this matter likely affects only a small number of refurbished units, Motorola has a strong commitment to its consumers, and is proactively responding to mitigate any risk to its customers. Motorola has 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 customers 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.

In conjunction with today’s announcement, Motorola is also actively pursuing the return of the impacted refurbished units to ensure that the memory of each device is cleared. 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. Motorola is committed to rigorous data protection practices in order to protect its customers, and will continue to take the necessary steps to achieve this objective.

About Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE:MMI) fuses innovative technology with human insights to create experiences that simplify, connect and enrich people’s lives. Our portfolio includes converged mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; wireless accessories; end-to-end video and data delivery; and management solutions, including set-tops and data-access devices. For more information, visit motorola.com/mobility.