Your basement is cluttered with old electronics that are just gathering dust. There are computers, smartphones, tablets and bags full of chargers and USB keys that you don’t need anymore. You’re planning on donating some of the electronics that are in good condition and then throwing out the rest.
While decluttering your space of old electronics is a good idea, donating them or tossing them into the trash isn’t. For one, e-waste should never go in the trash — electronics contain heavy metals and hazardous materials that can contaminate the soil and groundwater in landfills. They need to be sent to a specialized recycling facility.
Another reason why you shouldn’t donate or toss them is that your electronics are likely to have data on them. You don’t want the wrong person to get access to that data.
What If You Delete the Data?
Deleting files won’t completely remove your data. Hackers with sophisticated data recovery tools can find deleted files on your devices. If hackers access your data, you can become a target for several crimes:
- Identity Theft: A hacker could access your personal information and use it to impersonate you.
- Financial Fraud: Typically, identity theft is done to commit financial fraud, like opening up credit accounts in your name, spending the credit and leaving you responsible for paying the debt.
- Stalking: A hacker could use your personal information to harass and stalk you online or in person.
Risks to Your Contacts
You may have the contact information of your friends, family members, colleagues and acquaintances on your devices. If a hacker goes through your old electronics, they could use this contact information to target your social circle, putting those people at risk of crimes like identity theft, financial fraud, harassment and stalking.
Risks to Your Workplace
If you have any work-related data on your device, you could compromise the workplace’s security by donating it or tossing it in the trash. A hacker who accesses this crucial information could cause a company-wide data breach or ransomware attack.
Destroy It, Don’t Delete It
Do not sell or donate electronics that store data on them. There is no risk of donating electronics that have no data storage capabilities, like a reading lamp. Computers, tablets, smartphones, USB keys and similar devices are what you should avoid giving away. These should be recycled.
Before recycling these devices, you’ll need to make sure that the data on them is inaccessible. You can’t do this by deleting the data. The only way to guarantee that it doesn’t get into the wrong hands is to destroy it. By physically destroying the device’s storage media, you can prevent infiltration before it’s processed for recycling.
Professional Data Destruction
To make sure that you destroy data properly, call up the experts. Data destruction experts know how to safely destroy sensitive documents and electronic data so that personal information cannot be retrieved and used against you. The experts will come to your home to destroy the old electronics. By doing the destruction on-site, you can be confident that all necessary electronics are taken care of.
Once your electronics are destroyed, the experts will collect and recycle them for you. It’s that simple.
Decluttering your home doesn’t need to put your data at risk. When you hire data destruction experts, you can get rid of your old electronics and the data inside of them at the same time.
