Maintenance mode: Samsung’s new feature will protect personal data from repair staff

Maintenance Mode will lock all your sensitive data, letting engineers only access apps with personal data removed
”Select” Galaxy phones will prevent repair staff from accessing your private details
Martyn Landi/PA
Alan Martin26 October 2022

Samsung has begun to roll out a new phone security feature that should offer peace of mind for those who worry about snooping repair staff.

Called Maintainance Mode, the feature allows users to enable a locked-down version of Samsung’s One UI 5, which not only hides personal data and photographs but prevents engineers from accessing any user-downloaded apps, too.

Engineers will still be able to download apps while in Maintenance Mode, but they will be automatically removed once the original owner restores the regular account.

Maintenance Mode has to be enabled before you pass your phone over, activated via an option in the “Battery and device care” section of the phone’s settings. That means that, if your repair is for your phone not switching on, then you won’t be able to enable it, but it’s still undoubtedly an improvement.

Unfortunately, the fear of repair staff snooping on private information is one that is grounded in reality. Last year, Apple had to settle a multi-million dollar case with a young woman who had taken an iPhone in for repair to a Pegatron facility in California, only to find “10 photos of her in various stages of undress and a sex video” posted to her Facebook account by two rogue employees.

The frequency of such privacy violations is completely unknowable. After all, this specific incident only came to light due to its blatancy. How frequently people have their photos flicked through or contact information copied down without any digital fingerprints being left behind is a mystery.

Samsung says that Maintenance Mode will initially be on “select models running One UI 5”, which suggests it will only be for the company’s flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Z foldables to begin with. The company says that availability will expand “to more Galaxy devices” in due course, however.

The global rollout has now begun but, even if you have one of the “select models”, you may have a wait, with Samsung pledging that the rollout will continue throughout 2023.

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