Getting rid of old equipment safely

Vicky123

How do I dispose of old computer stuff, desk top, androids, routers, cables etc.
Is there a security issue with any of it?
TIA

zaax

YES anything that has non-volatile memory, there is argument about volatile memory as well. The rest can be recycled

Swipe

Wipe any devices and smash any hard disks and then recycle them at your local council tip

HappyMJ

Vicky123 wrote: »

How do I dispose of old computer stuff, desk top, androids, routers, cables etc.
Is there a security issue with any of it?
TIA

Yes...remove hard drives. Keep them or destroy them. If you want to spend time securely formatting the drives then you can do so.

Restore any android devices back to factory settings.

Routers can be reset back to factory default settings. You might have set a password on the router and that password may or may not be the same password you use elsewhere.

Vicky123

Thanks everyone, so only cables are safe to dispose of right now as they are?

rich13348

Everything is safe to dispose of it just depends what measures you take to mitigate anyone trying to recover your personal data

You can dispose of desktop computers so long as you remove the HDD and destroy it ( I favour a drill through it) or wipe it using so military grade programs that writes over the drive several times to make sure data destruction is absolute.

Tablets and other android devices can be wiped by doing a factory reset on them this will purge all your personal data from them.

A router can be set to default normally with a push of a button on it which will also make it safe to dispose of or recycle.

agrinnall

Has there ever been a case of somebody taking their computer equipment intact to a recycling centre and having their data compromised as a result? I'd say the chances are very small, and the last couple of computers I've disposed of I haven't bothered to do anything, although they had been kept unused for quite a few years so any data on their disks was likely to be out of date anyway.

HoofeHearted

Before disposing of any android device, I suggest you have a look at this article.
http://www.cnet.com/news/android-factory-reset-doesnt-delete-all-data/