[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-recycling-site-says-iphone-5c-searches-are-up-40500":10,"sections":41},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":30,"tags":31,"sources":36,"feedback":40,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":40,"total_tokens":40},12692,"recycling-site-says-iphone-5c-searches-are-up-40500","Recycling Site Says iPhone 5C Searches Are Up 40,500%","Compare and Recycle says Gen Z is behind a 40,500% jump in 'buy iPhone 5C' searches, and its advice is to treat the 2013 phone as a camera only.","Searches for \"buy iPhone 5C\" are up 40,500% over the past year, according to the recycling comparison site Compare and Recycle, which ties the jump to Gen Z interest in retro cameras.\n\nThe site also said searches for \"iPhone 5C camera\" rose 1,815%, and plain \"iPhone 5C\" searches rose 264%. It attributes the interest to a taste for \"Y2K aesthetic\" photos, which the phone's 13-year-old 8MP camera can capture. That explanation is the company's reading of the trend, not something shown by survey data, and no absolute search volumes came with the percentages.\n\nThose volumes matter. A query that starts small can multiply several hundred times and still describe a modest number of people. The 40,500% figure shows direction, not scale.\n\nThe security picture is clearer. The last version of iOS the 5C can run is 10.3.3, released in 2017, so the phone has gone almost a decade without security fixes. Lee Elliott, Compare and Recycle's chief product officer, said the phone \"can't protect personal data in the way more modern iPhones do,\" leaving users open to data leaks and hacking.\n\nHis advice is to use it purely as a camera. Keep it in airplane mode with no SIM card, skip your personal Apple ID, and move photos to a computer by cable instead of iCloud. If you must get online, he suggests a disposable Apple ID and no logins for email, banking or social media.\n\nIn practice, that checklist strips out everything that makes the 5C a phone. A standalone digital camera has no accounts or always-on connections to protect, which is the property the 5C only gets once you switch those features off.","[\"iphone\",\"retro-tech\",\"gen-z\",\"security\"]","2026-11-10T10:15:55.000Z","2026-11-10T10:31:59.072Z","2026-11-10T10:31:59.375Z","published",null,[24],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"The headline states as fact that Gen Z is driving the surge, but the body says only that Compare and Recycle attributes it to Gen Z (the source says 'reportedly' and 'apparently'), so attribute the claim in the headline and dek (e.g. 'Recycling site says...'), and trim the unsupported aside that 'the dated sensor is the appeal'.","resolved","consumer-tech",[32,33,34,35],"iphone","retro-tech","gen-z","security",[37],{"name":38,"url":39},"TechRadar","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.techradar.com\u002Fphones\u002Fiphone\u002Fiphone-5c-searches-are-up-40-500-percent-as-gen-z-boards-the-retro-camera-trend-but-privacy-experts-warn-it-cant-protect-personal-data-in-the-way-more-modern-iphones-do",0,{"sections":42},[43,48,52,57,62,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,101,106],{"name":44,"slug":45,"count":46,"latest_published_at":47},"AI","ai",7144,"2026-11-12T13:27:45.000Z",{"name":49,"slug":35,"count":50,"latest_published_at":51},"Security",1128,"2026-11-11T18:05:00.000Z",{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Deals","deals",642,"2026-11-12T14:00:00.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Policy","policy",619,"2026-11-12T12:53:36.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":30,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Consumer Tech",364,"2026-11-12T11:12:32.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Hardware","hardware",336,"2026-11-12T11:24:43.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Science","science",230,"2026-11-12T10:00:00.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Software","software",168,"2026-11-11T17:36:49.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",159,"2026-11-11T12:30:00.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",127,"2026-11-11T19:00:44.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"General","general",118,"2026-11-11T16:49:42.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Gaming","gaming",107,"2026-11-12T10:09:03.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"Reviews","reviews",38,"2026-10-20T12:00:00.000Z",{"name":107,"slug":108,"count":109,"latest_published_at":110},"How-To","how-to",8,"2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z"]