Google crushes, shreds old hard drives to prevent data leakage
Google is shedding some of the secrecy around its data center
practices, with a new video that shows extensive security
measures and the destruction of old hard drives to prevent
leakage of customer data.  Google "rigorously tracks the
location and status" of each hard drive, destroying failed hard
drives with a multistep process before gathering the mangled
bits in boxes to send off to recycling centers.  "One device
that is used to destroy old hard drives is known as the
crusher," the narrator of a Google video says. "A steel piston
is pushed through the center of the drive and the platters are
deformed, making them unreadable."  Next, the video shows a
powerful shredder spewing out pieces of drives used to hold
customer data. "As you can see no one will be likely to get
Google's customer data from these drives," the narrator states.
Next, we see a half-dozen or so boxes filled with shredded
pieces of former hard drives, ready to be shipped off