Is it safe to trade-in an old device?

Did you know that more data has been created during the past two years than in the entire previous history of humanity?

The world population is currently about 7.7 billion people and experts believe that by the year 2020, about 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for each human being on the planet.

We are also seeing a huge growth in video and photographic data. Every minute up to 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube alone.

Nearly 80% of pictures are now taken on smart phones. We take over 1 trillion photos annually and share billions of them online.

In 2018 alone, roughly 400 million computing devices were shipped globally.

Because of the rapid evolution of technology, many used devices are being exchanged or recycled on the secondary market; often stimulated by financial incentives to “trade-up” to a faster or smarter device or by electronics recyclers offering to take old computers and other hardware from businesses at no charge.

Some people bring their devices to “free” neighborhood electronics recycling events.

But, have you thought carefully about what happens to the residual data left on your old computer, tablet or cell phone? Are you confident that the people taking your old hardware will securely destroy your personal information before reselling your device?

A recent study revealed that 7 out of 10 used devices contained Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including: online banking credentials, private pictures, voter and other government ID cards, social security numbers, biometrics, etc.

Did you know that re-initializing a device to factory settings does not overwrite stored data?

Removing residual data from hard drives, memory cards and cell phones is a time-consuming, costly, manual procedure. Most electronics intermediaries are not trained, equipped or motivated to do it correctly.

Are you willing to take the risk of suffering a residual data breach?

Shredding is a more permanent solution. A trustworthy shredding company can:

• Offer On-Site hard drive shredding service, reducing your risk by shredding your hard drives right in front of you.
• Provide a Certificate of Destruction with the serial number of each hard drive, tablet or cell phone that was shred, should you need to demonstrate your thoroughness in the future.
• Demonstrate their operating and hiring practices are externally audited and certified by NAID (National Association of Information Destruction) and ISO
(International Standards Organization)
• Document the recycling of the shredded remnant of your devices through R2 certified vendors that achieve high standards in the industrial re-use of recycled material.

For more information, contact Greg Gálvez at greg.galvez@proshred.com or 678-580-1155.