Securing your data

There are precautions you can take to prevent the wrong people getting hold of your data.

Mobile phones are relatively easy to make safe. Remove the SIM card and perform a “factory reset.” You’ll find instructions in your phone’s manual or by searching for the model online. For added security with Android phones search for apps on the Google Play store that can carry out a “data wipe.”

Making data on a computer hard drive impossible to recover is a little more difficult. First you should use a “wipe” program which will reformat the drive, then rewrite it with a random pattern of data, possibly repeating the process several times for added safety.

 That should defeat all but the best-equipped and most determined criminals. But if you want to have a level of security to match the military and financial institutions, you can physically destroy the drives by drilling holes through the platters.

But, before you destroy all your old technology, make sure it’s not valuable. Mint examples of the first iPhone from 2007 are being offered on eBay for $15,000. Last year an Apple-1 computer from 1976 sold at auction in Germany for a reported €500,000 ($681,680). One at Christie’s fetched $387,750 and, just last month a buyer paid $87,500 for just the motherboard from an Apple-1.