We take your privacy seriously and use industry-leading techniques to fully erase the data on each and every device that enters our doors.

What is the best way to destroy a hard drive?

The most certain way to ensure a hard drive and its data are destroyed is to use an industrial shredder, designed for the purpose. This will render the HDD into a pile of metal particles (see the photo below.)

Can a SSD solid state drive be shredded?

Yes. Solid state drives must be shredded into even smaller bits to ensure all of the internal memory chips are destroyed.

Can computer memory chips be shredded?

Yes. While computer RAM chips do not retain data once power is removed, the highest security standards call for these components to be physically destroyed.

Data Destruction Services

eWaste ePlanet offers data destruction services both on-site at your location and at our warehouse in Atlanta. Once we destroy your data, you will receive an itemized Certificate of Destruction for your records. If you need a full audit of your devices and hard drives, we also offer serialized reporting.

Compliance

eWaste ePlanet follows the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Computer Security Division’s Special Publication 800-88 Rev.1: Guidelines for Media Sanitization. We implement a secure erase procedure for all solid state and mechanical drives. If a drive does not support our standard secure erasing procedure, we follow the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) Operating Manual, or DoD 5220.22-M, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Defense. If we cannot sanitize a drive, we will physically destroy it.

Data Security Guarantee

eWaste ePlanet’s data destruction services are guaranteed to irreversibly destroy your personal information on discarded electronics. Please contact us for more details.

Chain of Custody

eWaste ePlanet has developed a secure, end-to-end monitoring and reporting system that leverages our technology, communication, and people to ensure the most secure and transparent Chain of Custody reporting for our clients and partners’ IT assets and recyclable electronics.

Why is data destruction so important?

Your data tells a story. Whether you need to dispose of a personal computer or a data center full of your business’s servers, your data may contain sensitive information about your identity, finances, and intellectual property.

Proper data security is crucial in preventing identity theft. Discarded computers, phones, tablets, and other data-bearing devices are a principle source of information for identity thieves.

If your e-waste is not securely recycled or is shipped overseas (a practice used by a majority of U.S. recycling companies), it may be re-sold and refurbished without being wiped. Identity thieves can buy hundreds of data-bearing devices at a time, extracting all the personal data they need to create new identities, apply for credit cards, take out loans, and empty bank accounts.

You probably know how to keep your data safe on devices you use regularly. But data has a longer life cycle than most people realize. Simply deleting files from your hard drive won’t remove them completely.