Disposal of Data Storage Devices and Portable Media

All portable media which may have contained personal and confidential information must be destroyed before disposal to adhere to the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

The primary method to ensure that a device or piece of media is not readable is by physically destroying it. For instance, cutting or breaking a CD/DVD in half will effectively render it unreadable. For other devices and types of media, please contact information.security@queensu.ca for the correct destruction technique(s).

Examples of data storage devices include:

• Portable hard drives
• Hard drives
• USB keys

Examples of portable media and data storage devices include:

• CDs
• DVDs
• VHS cassettes
• SD/xD/MMC/Memory Stick/Compact Flash cards
• LTO/DLT tapes
• Audio cassette (including cassettes used for dictating)
• Floppy Disks
• Zip Disks

Additional Information

ITServices provides a secure hard drive destruction and disposal service which can be used to dispose of all hard drives.

Questions?

Please contact the Information Systems Security Manager.