Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen OC_Formula for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com, October 8 (Xinhua) according to a new report from the Financial Times, the current standard procedure for technology companies is to smash servers and hard drives every few years, rather than deleting the data and reselling it. The report outlines the damage to the planet caused by this practice.

CTOnews.com has learned that tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google upgrade their storage hardware every four or five years. Together with banks, police and government agencies, they smash about tens of millions of outdated storage devices each year, because even small amounts of data exposure can have serious legal consequences. because it could infuriate regulators and damage consumer trust.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Morgan Stanley $35 million for leaking data from millions of customers by auctioning without erasing thousands of hard drives. Although there is no indication that any customers have suffered as a result, many companies, especially those operating cloud services, do not want a similar situation.

Some people may think that dealing with old hardware and upgrading new hardware is environmentally friendly, but the opposite may be true. Although upgrading to newer hardware is more energy efficient and has a lower carbon footprint, the carbon emissions of most technology products come from manufacturing, not from operations.

In addition, although about 70% of the component materials of the shredded hardware are recycled, the process basically wastes emissions from the initial manufacture of the hardware. Reusing these materials means repeating the easiest part of the hardware's carbon footprint. To make matters worse, other lost materials, such as rare earth metals, must be re-mined, which could lead to the use of "controversial minerals".

Technology companies may think that destruction is the only way to ensure data security, but experts believe it is an unnecessary and extreme choice. Many hard drives and servers may remain in use for years or even decades, and the risk of undesirable elements recovering data from second-hand storage devices may be small. Google and Microsoft say they have started using some refurbished servers, but their standard program for dealing with hard drives is still shredded.

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