If Your Recycling Old Tech Items, Make Sure You're Not Leaving Data Behind
Friday, May 10th, 2019 -- 9:02 AM
(WRN) -If your spring cleaning goals this year include getting rid of old tech stuff, make sure you're not leaving your data behind.If your spring cleaning goals this year include getting rid of old tech stuff, make sure you're not leaving your data behind. State consumer protection director Michelle Reinen says both Apple and Android offer basic tools to track and wipe your phone or tablet.
"If you misplace, lose, your phone is stolen? It's a way for you to remotely wipe the device so your information isn't stolen."
Reinen says it's important to make sure that your device's memory or hard drives are completely empty before you get rid of it.
"Information that can certainly lead to identity theft or just misuse of that information. And we don't want consumers to be harmed when they're really trying to do good by cleaning things out."
Reinen says doing a factory reset or formatting a hard drive is one way to do that. There's also more... creative ways.
"We've certainly heard of consumers just putting nails through them as well, so they're completely unusable.")
If you're recycling a computer, make sure to keep your hard drives, or use programs to completely wipe their data. You can find links to help you online at D A T C P dot W I dot G O V.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.