[Vision2020] Computer recycling?

[Paul Rumelhart]

Donovan Arnold wrote:

> Does anyone know where I can dump off an old 1999 computer that is in 
> several pieces? Can I dump it in the trash, or do I have to go through 
> some legal dumping or recycling thing?
>
You may want to think about reformating the harddrive to remove any 
personal data that might be on it before recycling it or throwing it 
away.  Identity thieves have apparently been buying up old harddrives 
for the purposes of stealing banking or other information.  If you're 
especially paranoid you can find utilities on the net that will write 
over it multiple times with random strings of 1s and 0s.  It's probably 
not a huge worry here in Moscow, but you never know.

Paul