Your personal information does not disappear when you dispose of an old laptop. Identity theft can be avoided by recycling electronic devices using certified vendors who value physical shredding, or industrial degaussing. Deletion of files or emptying the trash simply leaves traces that can be easily retrieved by hackers. To really avoid the identity theft by recycling electronics, make sure your provider gives you a Certificate of Destruction. This will ensure that your digital ghost has been deleted permanently before the hardware is reused.