That’s not data security!

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Since we began last year in 2016 with our philosophy of complete data destruction, all of a sudden the computer refurbishing companies in the area are touting data security as well.  I can tell you when we started up they weren’t.  Of course, any business has to react to changes in the marketplace to survive, but they should really just stick to what they do and refurbish computers.

I say this because when you refurbish computers, you need hard drives.  This is where it gets hypocritical.  In order for them to make money, they have to reuse hard drives.  New hard drives are expensive and cut into the margin.  When you refurbish, your overhead is high and used drives are key as they come with the equipment.  Or if you have to buy them, they don’t cost nearly as much as a new drive.  So what they do is offer data destruction, if you ask for it.  And it’s going to cost you.  Hey, someone has to pay for the drives.  So in essence, they may destroy one person’s drives only to reuse another’s.  That sure doesn’t sound like data security to me.

Hey refurbishers, stick to rebuilding computers.  Don’t tout data security with a hypocritical solution.  Destroying one customer’s drives only to reuse another’s isn’t right, and it’s misleading.

Misleading Customers

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Electronics recycling is still somewhat of a new industry in some areas.  Many people I speak to are still unfamiliar with recycling their old electronics.  Because of this, some recycling businesses take advantage of their customers’ lack of knowledge and mislead them.  This is unfortunate because this reflects poorly on all of us that run electronics recycling businesses.

There exist a few certifications that are available to the electronics recycling industry.  These certifications are meant to help control our practices and ensure we are handling the material in an appropriate manner.  Some large businesses require the companies they use to have these certifications.  They are costly, and in my opinion, really have no teeth to them.  Nevertheless, they are good for some companies.

What is not good are companies that misrepresent themselves by saying they have these certifications, when they don’t.  The use of the logo is prohibited and to say you are in process of getting a certification, that is prohibited also.  We have another local company in town that is falsely using the R2 logo in order to mislead their customers and misrepresent their business.  On all accounts, this is wrong.  Companies like this leave a bad reputation for all of us that run an electronics recycling business.

If you are looking into having your electronics recycled and these certifications mean something to you, do your research.  Make sure the company is really who they say they are.  If you find a company that is lying to their customers about their certifications, you can bet they are lying to you when it comes to your data and how they handle the electronics.

hard drive shredder

Mobile Hard Drive Shredding

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Sensible Recycling realizes how important your data is.  In order to meet the demand for data security while properly recycling old electronics, we are rolling out our mobile hard drive shredding service in late August or September of 2017.  This service will be performed at no charge just like all of our other services.  We will bring the destruction to you in order for you to observe the hard drive destruction.  The hard drives never have to leave your property.  Please give us a call or send us an email for more details.