IN OTHER NEWS – A recent study found that over 49,000 Georgians unknowingly share intimate content when recycling devices.

Release:

• 23% of Georgians do not wipe their data before submitting e-waste for recycling.
• Over 1-in-5 wrongly assume that the recycling center will wipe it for them.
• Infographic included showing employees’ top work worries. 

If we lost a cellphone, how many of us would be completely comfortable with the finder not gaining access and scrolling through the camera roll? According to a McAfee study, over 1 in 10 people have “racy” content of themselves on their devices; at the time, we consider taking these pictures or videos to be a bit of fun, never to be shared with anyone we wouldn’t actually want seeing it.

However, brace yourself for some bad news; millions of us may unwittingly be sharing our most intimate photos and videos when we recycle our old devices. That’s because many of us simply forget or do not bother to wipe our data before submitting it for e-waste recycling. And that crucial oversight could well result in our most private moments becoming public. So, just how many of us could be at risk? HostingAdvice decided to conduct a survey of 3,000 respondents to find out just how many Americans are leaving their personal data – and possibly billions of intimate photos – vulnerable each year. 

The main, and most startling, finding was that just over a quarter – 26% – of people surveyed said they do not erase the content from devices before recycling e-waste. This means that over 1.6 million devices, which include intimate content of their previous owners, are making their way back onto the market each year! That’s a lot of potentially scantily-clad photos…

When broken down by state, the study found that 23% of Georgians say they do not wipe their data before submitting e-waste for recycling, equating to 49,588 people unwittingly hand over intimate content of themselves when recycling their devices. The worst offenders are Minnesotans, with 46% (or 48,000) of them potentially letting others see intimate content of themselves without their knowledge. 

Thankfully, there are some states where respondents were much more cautious. Coming out on top is South Dakota, where only 8% (1,332) of survey participants said they put forward their e-waste for recycling with anything potentially incriminating on it. 

HostingAdvice decided to delve a bit deeper into people’s recycling habits, such as asking what would be the primary reason for not wiping data before recycling or disposing of a device. Over a third (37%) of respondents said they basically just forget, which is pretty understandable, while 22% assume – wrongly as it turns out – that the recycling center will wipe it for them. Twenty-one percent of those surveyed simply aren’t aware of how to do it, while 20% didn’t think it was necessary.

People are split on whether they would pay for a secure data-wiping service before recycling a device: 39% of people in the study said they would be likely to do so, but 36% would be unlikely to, with 25% unsure. The survey also asked what was the most sensitive data survey participants have forgotten to remove from a device before recycling it; 39% said passwords and logins, 22% said their social security number or personal ID info, while the second to last type of data respondents said they forgot to remove was intimate photos or videos (21%), followed by financial account details (18%).       

And actually, it turns out about 1 in 5 respondents (21%) said they care less about their intimate photos being found by someone else on an old device than they do having all their personal financial information discovered (79%). In that instance, they would arguably be more at risk of being stolen from, or made financially vulnerable. Over half of people surveyed (59%) wrongly believe that anyone who discovers personal information from someone else on a recycled device is legally required to wipe that data permanently, while the same number of respondents said they would trust a friend or family member to wipe their device for them before recycling it. 

And there are a lot of good Samaritans out there; over half (54%) say that if they discovered a stranger’s old device with their personal data still on it, they would delete the data and recycle it properly. A less scrupulous 11%, however, said they would try to access the data out of curiosity. Overall, over half (52%) say they have regretted not taking more precautions with their data before recycling a device.

Infographic showing survey results

‘It’s always best to totally clean a device before passing it on for recycling,” says Christina Lewis of HostingAdvice. “You never know who might find it, or see it, and so it’s just not worth the risk. Of course, having intimate pictures seen by strangers could be embarrassing, but having your financial data cloned or stolen is arguably worse.”

Methodology

For this survey, 3,000 respondents were selected from a geographically diverse, double opt-in online panel. We then refined this selection process to align with the specific criteria necessary for each distinct survey. To ensure accuracy, we craft our questions to thoroughly screen and verify respondents, matching them precisely with the survey’s target audience.