Can a lawyer drop off a computer for ecycling?

I've written twice now about the City of Chicago recycling facility which takes, among other things, consumer electronics for ecycling.

City residents can take their old computers there and expect that the machines will be disposed of responsibly. The City may even make a buck or two from reducing the computer to its component parts and selling the more valuable parts.

But can a Chicago lawyer take his or her obsolete computer there for ecycling?

Machines from one's office are not supposed to be dropped off there, and there are services which will -- for a fee -- pick up used computers at an office and supply documentation, for each machine, that the hard drives have been responsibly destroyed.

But what about the laptop? The computer in the home office that is used for additional work on nights and weekends? It contains confidential client information... and opinion is pretty unanimous that a machine like this can not simply be put out with the trash....

In a March 2005 article that appeared in Wisconsin Lawyer, Ross L. Kodner and Courtney G. Kennaday wrote:

Tossing [your old computers] in a Dumpster® seems wasteful; also, much of this equipment is considered hazardous to the environment and must be managed and disposed of in compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. You might try to sell old computers for a few cents on eBay or donate them to charity.

Any of these disposal choices could cost you your law license.

Why? Because old computers are packed with confidential client information that you have an ethical duty to protect. Further, the computers undoubtedly contain sensitive firm information and software licensed to your firm or organization (for which you have specific obligations under end-user license agreements). Giving away control of and access to old computers - through the Dumpster approach, an eBay sale, or a charitable donation - can lead to malpractice claims and ethical violations at worst and serious embarrassment at best. There could even be claims for violating HIPAA (for disclosing employee or client healthcare information) and Sarbanes-Oxley (for giving away corporate documents that you must maintain).

An article posted on the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center also cites "Federal Trade Commission's Disposal Rule (16 CFR Part 682) on June 1, 2005, [which] says that companies disposing of computer equipment need to take steps necessary to remove personal or financial information from the machines."

Both of these articles offer advice for lawyers on "file shredding" programs that will do more than just delete programs. But Kodner and Kennaday warn that, "given enough time and money, someone probably could find a way to recover at least some of your data, no matter what you do." Paranoid? Read some of the hard drive disposal suggestions made by ABA members on Solosez, an electronic mail discussion list that the ABA offers for solo and small firm practitioners.

Both articles encourage ecycling -- but recommend that file shredding software be employed before dropping the old machine off. But, says the ABA article, "The surest way to prevent information on the hard drive from falling into the wrong hands is to remove it entirely from the computer. This way the outside shell of the computer can be thrown out but the sensitive information can be retained." Old hard drives should be labeled and stored.