Donating business devices
Technology Donation Guidance
This information below sets out our approach to data management in the context of businesses donating technology. This approach has been approved by hundreds of businesses who have donated their devices to Screen Share. It is honest about the costs businesses need to incur in order to support people in need. It should be read in conjunction with our privacy policy, and it can be downloaded in PDF form by clicking here.
V1.3 May 2024
One of the reasons Screen Share was established was because of the nervousness of corporations and individuals in managing their data in the context of tech disposal. Screen Share takes data safety incredibly seriously and is committed to offering honest, clear and tailored data management advice to donors in order to facilitate their donation.
We require you to wipe your device of all data prior to donating it to us, and as a result we do not intentionally receive or process any personal data stored on any donated device.
Each one of our corporate partners to date has chosen to incur the time and financial cost of wiping their donated devices in-house. There are a variety of ways to do this. Most donors run a ‘factory reset’ - instructions for which are available on our website. Others have used BitRaser which is quicker but more costly. Some have chosen to remove the hard drive altogether.
In the event that donors do not have the capacity to wipe or destroy hard drives themselves, we encourage them to use the services of one of our recommended tech partners. Our primary recommendation is ToRecycle, whose destruction process meets or exceeds many internationally recognised standards including the Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG), Commercial Product Assurance (CPA), Nato Confidential, Nato Restricted, Nato Secret and Cosmic Top Secret, Defence INFOSEC Product Co-Operation Group UK (DIPCOG) and the standards provided by the USA Department of Defense. A data destruction certificate is provided at the end of the process and a duty of care notification is issued during it.
Some of our corporate partners have also used Shred-It. Shred-it has comprehensive accreditation, provides a secure chain of custody at every touchpoint and issues a certificate of destruction after each service. If you would prefer Screen Share to conduct a secure wiping process at your offices, please get in touch.
In the event that there is any data retained on your device once you have donated it, and the device is one we want to refurbish, we will wipe that device using BitRaser, share with you the data destruction certificate and continue the refurbishment and redistribution process. If the device is not useful for our service user group, we will arrange for the collection and destruction of any retained data through ToRecycle by one of our technology partners (who are fully accredited with ISO14001, ISO27001 and ADISA, and provide certificates of destruction) within 4 weeks. During this time, all care is taken to protect your data. Our staff and volunteers are trained in data privacy practices and apply them at every stage of the process. No data storing hardware received by Screen Share is ever distributed to recipients. We make sure to closely follow the guidance issued by the National Cyber Security Centre on how charities should erase personal data from donated technology. If you have any questions about this document, please feel free to reach out to us as info@screen-share.co.uk.