Title: Disposing of a Computer or Phone or Tablet? Don't Give Away Your Personal Data as Well! (6/30/2015)
Headings: Personalized Computer Services
Personalized Computer Services
Content: Just be careful to do this holding the CDs deep inside a trash can or trash bag because they may shatter, exploding into lots of very sharp tiny pieces. Yes, I did this once, years ago, and I'm still finding sharp shiny CD shards in the rug around my desk. Floppy disks, Zip disks: Break open the plastic shell (which probably isn't recyclable), catch the shutter's metal spring that may bounce out, then use scissors to cut up the soft ("floppy") magnetic-coated plastic disk inside. Note that different manufacturers use different terms for "factory reset": " hard reset," "hard reboot," "master reset," "restore to factory settings," etc. Summary
Don't jeopardize your privacy or give away your personal information or risk identity theft when you dispose of your computer or other technology. Just like you would shred important paper documents before putting them in the trash or recycling, for every piece of technology you're going to discard, ask yourself if there was ever any important data on it. If so, or even if you're not sure, don't get rid of that device until it has been thoroughly erased or physically destroyed. Remember that just because you may not be able to power on or operate the device anymore, a thief or scavenger who gets their hands on it may be clever enough to take it apart, remove its internal storage, and use other equipment to gain access to your valuable data.