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A slightly tangential question for those in the know: how do consumers destroy their data? If I've got a busted HDD or a dead tablet — anything which is holdin

A slightly tangential question for those in the know: how do consumers destroy their data? If I've got a busted HDD or a dead tablet — anything which is holding data that I can't electronically destroy — who do I give it to? The office supply shops have paper shredding. The municipal recycling centers will take stuff, and so will the electronics stores, but they all carry disclaimers about data privacy. I've considered visiting my local police station where they store confiscated property and just tip it into a public trash can. I suppose that the City's service would be safe enough. Would ethics or liability prevent salvage operations from harvesting personal data?

rsyring 4y ago
12 gauge...#4 buckshot. Seriously.
lostmsu 4y ago
You can always save this kind of stuff until the next time you go visit an active volcano.
throwaway277432 4y ago
> who do I give it to? No one, you do it yourself. Here's what works for personal devices. - Hard drives: Open them up with a screwdriver, then physically smash the platters with the pointy end of a hammer. The platters easily shatter into a thousand pieces, very little force required. Use a plastic bag to contain the pieces. For newer models, also smash the cache chips on the logic board. - SSDs / flash storage: disassemble the case, then smash the memory chips with a hammer. - CDs/DVDs: break them a few times, ideally use a shredder if you have one that's strong enough. Make sure the metal foil is sufficiently destroyed. - Tapes: take out the tape itself, then carefully shredder lengthwise or just burn it. - anything with batteries in it: remove the battery first. - anything with device specific cloud service accounts: delete the data and close the account if you won't be using it anymore, so it can't leak data if it gets hacked in the future. >Would ethics or liability prevent salvage operations from harvesting personal data? Physically no. Especially don't trust anybody telling you you can trust them. You have to do it yourself or at the very least watch it with your own eyes. There are commercial services that physically shredder hard drives and documents, these should let you watch so you can verify the destruction yourself.
prova_modena 4y ago
I've taken old HDDs to a commercial shredding service. They have a special shredder for electronics and will let you watch your drives/tablets/etc being destroyed. I think it is a pretty common service, there are quite a few places that do this in my city. Does get expensive if you have a bunch, though.

rsyring 4y ago

12 gauge...#4 buckshot. Seriously.

lostmsu 4y ago

You can always save this kind of stuff until the next time you go visit an active volcano.

throwaway277432 4y ago

> who do I give it to? No one, you do it yourself. Here's what works for personal devices. - Hard drives: Open them up with a screwdriver, then physically smash the platters with the pointy end of a hammer. The platters easily shatter into a thousand pieces, very little force required. Use a plastic bag to contain the pieces. For newer models, also smash the cache chips on the logic board. - SSDs / flash storage: disassemble the case, then smash the memory chips with a hammer. - CDs/DVDs: break them a few times, ideally use a shredder if you have one that's strong enough. Make sure the metal foil is sufficiently destroyed. - Tapes: take out the tape itself, then carefully shredder lengthwise or just burn it. - anything with batteries in it: remove the battery first. - anything with device specific cloud service accounts: delete the data and close the account if you won't be using it anymore, so it can't leak data if it gets hacked in the future. >Would ethics or liability prevent salvage operations from harvesting personal data? Physically no. Especially don't trust anybody telling you you can trust them. You have to do it yourself or at the very least watch it with your own eyes. There are commercial services that physically shredder hard drives and documents, these should let you watch so you can verify the destruction yourself.

prova_modena 4y ago

I've taken old HDDs to a commercial shredding service. They have a special shredder for electronics and will let you watch your drives/tablets/etc being destroyed. I think it is a pretty common service, there are quite a few places that do this in my city. Does get expensive if you have a bunch, though.