Chosen Solution
Hello! I recently spilled water on my Macbook Pro. It’s the 13.3" version with 4 usb-c ports. I took it to a technician who advised me the best course of action would be to take it apart and sell the components as trying to fix it wouldn’t be economically feasible when labour costs are accounted for. One of the components is the motherboard. I’m slightly sceptical about selling this as the motherboard contains the hard drive which contains my data. I was told by Apple that they wouldn’t be able to remove my data as the device had been taken apart. Is there any other way I could erase my data from the hard drive? For example, by connecting it to another device? Before selling a macbook I would normally reset it to factory settings. Of course, in this case, this wasn’t possible as the damage was caused by a clumsy accident. I’ve decided to change my Apple ID, google and lastpass passwords as they contain data on passwords for other accounts and bank details etc. My question is, does this make it safe to sell my motherboard as the buyer wouldn’t be able to access my data that is tied to either my apple, google and lastpass accounts as they wouldn’t know my new passwords? I’m guessing as I’ve changed my passwords they would be prompted with a popup asking to sign in again? Are the measures I have taken enough to ensure possible buyers wouldn’t be able to have access to this sensitive data? What else could I do? I’m not too worried about the files on my desktop/documents as they don’t contain much sensitive data apart from names/addresses. I’m more worried about the data that is synched from the cloud such as passwords, banking details, photos, etc. Any advice from people more technically aware than me/people that have been in similar situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Sadly your data is still on the flash chips! So if someone manages to fix your logic board that could gain access to it! This is the dilemma of soldered storage. The newer T2 boards are much better! There the data is encrypted! So there is no way to gain access. Setting your iCloud account to wipe the data on this system if its seen would be a good idea and if you sold it for parts I would even set the iCloud account to stolen so if your system is resurrected from the dead you’ll know. Snapping the logic board so the flash chips are removed is also another way you could do this (selling the main section for parts)
