Trading-in my water damaged phone to a phone company. Can they see my personal data?

So i'm trading in my iPhone 6 for a newer version as it is water damaged (it won't turn on or anything) and my phone company said that they can recycle it. Does this mean that once they get it working, they will see all of my personal information, including photos, contacts etc? I've taken the SIM card out but I'm not sure what this contains.

Wow

Theoretically they could see all your data if it is not encrypted… But even then its unlikely they will do it…

I'm sure that of they do in fact get it working, rather than recycling it, they might look at pictures if they are bored enough that day. Me I wouldn't take the time to look at anything, but there are people that would.

No. Data on iPhones is encrypted, and in any case, they're likely to recycle it by stripping it for parts and selling the leftover scrap. But even if they do repair the phone or sell it to a recycler who then resells it for repair, nobody can access your data without knowing your security credentials.

If you want additional safety go to Find My iPhone and set your damaged iPhone to be wiped so that if anyone manages to turn it on or restore it to a functional condition it will erase all of your data and perform a factory reset as soon as it connects to Wi-Fi or a data connection.