Electronics

[NicksmomESQ]

  I just stumbled upon several old Android cellphones , while cleaning out a drawer. I don't have the charging cables & they don't turn on, so they can't be restored to factory settings. My question is can I just throw them out? I'm concerned about private information that may have been stored on these phones.

  Thank you

[Miss Pepsi]

While i am no techie, If I were to throw them out, I would beat them up with a hammer first to make sure they are totally unusable.  Having said that, Police stations or at least they used too around here take old cell phones and give them to places like battered womens shelters and things like that.  I would contact the company that made the phones and see what kind of advice they can give you.

[Imaoldhippie]

Your local trash collection may have a way to get rid of them, same as old computers, so the batteries and other poisonous stuff does seep into the earth.  

[jackthebear]

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@Miss Pepsi wrote:

While i am no techie, If I were to throw them out, I would beat them up with a hammer first to make sure they are totally unusable.  Having said that, Police stations or at least they used too around here take old cell phones and give them to places like battered womens shelters and things like that.  I would contact the company that made the phones and see what kind of advice they can give you.

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depending on how old they are you could probably pull up your account and delete your self from that phone 

[gardenman]

Unless you're very rich, or very famous, you're probably safe enough to recycle them in whatever manner your local community allows. Smashing the phone with a hammer will break the glass, but the actual memory chips that hold your data are very small and hard to kill with a hammer. I would remove the SIM card, and any Micro SD cards you might have in the phones at the very least. The safest thing to do is put them back in the drawer and to continue to forget about them. That's what I do with old out-dated phones.

[Deb665]

The recycle center where I live will take all electronic goods.  The first pc I took to them, I removed the hard drive and beat it to pieces with a hammer.  I will admit I got a strange look from the man at the recycle center when I handed him the shell of the pc and then a bag of bits and pieces!

[sann]

Can you remove the SIM csrd?

[Nuttmeg]

I would take them to your local recycling center when it is safe for you to go there.

[Buster43]

For $10 or less you can get a charging cable for android phones from Amazon (won't have to leave home) and reset all the phones to factory settings. One cable should fit all.

If you have a collection of old cables like a lot of people do, you may already have a cable...most Android phones are pretty standard. Personally I would follow Gardenman's advice and just stash them in a drawer and forget them.

[VaBelle35]

I always keep my last phone as a backup just in case I lose my current phone.

I always delete contacts and any saved files and do a factory reset before I shut it down and pack it away.

I lost my first phone in a taxi in DC a million years ago and it was PITA back then when you  had contracts.

I've never lost a phone since, but I still keep it around just in case.

I donate the older one to the police department here for emergency service each time I buy a new phone.