To meet California law for electronic waste disposal and to reduce the risk of accidental disclosure of confidential information, new procedures and guidelines have been developed to ensure the secure disposal of electronic devices and media. User will be responsible for ensuring that devices (Computers, PDA’s, Cell Phones) have data securely removed.

Electronic devices require special processing if they store and retain information when the power is turned off. For purposes of these procedures and guidelines, electronic devices which meet this definition include but are not limited to: desktop computers, servers, disk drives, USB flash drives, cell phones, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Media include floppy disks, CD-ROMs, backup tapes, and Zip disks.

For the great majority of systems, not very difficult at all. User services will provide software which will clean a machine with a few commands. However, once a machine is cleaned, the data can no longer be retrieved, so you need to be very sure you are done transferring data from the machine.