How to Securely Dispose of a Printer

pcmag.com:

A few years ago, a reader asked me a question I couldn't immediately answer. "I know that, when you toss an old computer, you're supposed to make the personal information that resides on the hard drive inaccessible to the outside world," he said. "I was wondering if this same issue arises when you toss an old printer?"

It’s a good question. Certainly, you need to thoroughly sanitize any computer you plan to give away or recycle, ensuring none of your personal information remains. The same is true when you trade in or sell a smartphone. Could these concerns exist for printers, too? To get a handle on this question, I turned to M. David Stone, PCMag's longtime contributing editor for printers and scanners.

"First, you need to make a distinction between types of data," said Stone. "The important stuff for most people would be what you print, fax, or copy. Call that real data. The less important info would be stored email addresses and fax numbers. Call that contact information."

Stop and think for a moment about the most sensitive data you print, fax, or copy. Tax returns? Legal documents? Medical records? Some medical practices prefer communication by fax machine, on the basis that it’s more secure than email. But if the sensitive information sits in the all-in-one device’s memory, that’s far from secure.

"The only time any information stored on the printer can be an issue is if the printer has either an internal disk or non-volatile memory," he continued. "I also doubt there are any with non-volatile memory for real data, but I can't swear to it. There are some that can hold contact info in non-volatile memory."

Stone pointed out that the presence of certain features might indicate the presence of onboard storage in an